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LADDIE AND VI WERE BEING TAKEN OUT ON THE BROAD BAY.
±ix Little Bunkers at Captain Ben's Frontispiece— {Page 159)

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS
AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

BY

LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "Six Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's," "Six

Little Bunkers at Aunt Jo's," "Six Little Bunkers

at Uncle Fred's," Etc.

ILLUSTRATED

NEW YORK

GROSSET & DUNLAF

PUBLISHERS

<P

BOOKS

By LAURA LEE HOPE

12mo. Cloth. Illustrated.

THE SIX LITTLE BUNKERS SERIES

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDMA BELL'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT AUNT JO'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT COUSIN TOM'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT GRANDPA FORD'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT UNCLE FRED'S
SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

THE BOBBSEY TWINS SERIES

THE BOBBSEY TWINS

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY ISLAND

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE SEA

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRANDPA'S

FARM
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING

CIRCUS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT LU'S

CITY HOME
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP

REST-A-WHILE
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE IN THE BIG

WOODS
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO

TOUR
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR

SHETLAND PONY
BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRIST-
MAS TREE COVE

THE OUTDOOR GIRLS SERIES

(Nine Titles)

GROSSET & DUNLAP, PUBLISHERS, NEW YORK

Copyright, 1920, hy
GROSSET & DUNLAP

Six Little Bunkers at Captain Ben's

CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

I. The Smoking Chimney 1

II. The Climbing Man 11

III. The Invitation 22

IV. Another Vacation 32

V. The Missing Watch 44

VI. Off to Grand View 53

VII. The Storm 62

VIII. A Queer Night 73

IX. In the Ditch 83

X. The Bad Ram 91

XI. The Apple Boy 100

XII. Offering Help 110

XIII. The Missing Boy 122

XIV. In the Old Log 133

XV. The Bunkers Get Together 142

XVI. An Unexpected Ride 151

XVII. The Ragged Men 160

XVIII. More Things Gone 168

XIX. Lots of Fun 180

iv CONTENTS

CHAPTER PAGE

XX. The Flood 189

XXI. An Island Picnic 199

XXII. After the Tramps 211

XXIII. The Old Satchel 219

XXIV. Tad's News 227

XXV. The Capture .- 234

SIX LITTLE BUNKERS
AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

CHAPTER I

THE SMOKING CHIMNEY

"One, two, three, four, five, six !"

Russ Bunker counted thus, pointing his
finger at five children in turn, until he reached
himself, when he stooped down and turned a
somersault on the floor of the attic.

"Oh, look at Russ!" cried Rose, the sister
nearest him in age. "How funny he did it!"

"What made you do it, Russ ?" asked Violet,
or Vi as she was called for short. "What
made you flop over that way? Did it hurt
your head ? Did you get any splinters in your
hands? Did you "

"Say! Hold on a minute! Wait!" cried

Russ, with a laugh, as Vi stood with her mouth

open all ready to ask another question. "If

we're going to play the steamboat game I can't

answer all those questions."

1

2 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Are you going to play the steamboat
game?" cried Vi, jumping up and down so that
her curly hair bobbed back and forth in and
out of her grey eyes. "Oh, what fun! But
please tell me, Russ, what made you count us
all that way, as if we were going to play tag?
And what made you flop over, and what "

"There you go again with your questions!"
interrupted Russ, with another laugh. "You
can't seem to stop, Vi. You don't give any
one else a chance."

"And I know a nice riddle I can ask, too,"
broke in Laddie, who was his sister Violet's
twin. "I know a riddle about what makes the
paper stick on the wall and if it falls off "

"I asked first!" broke in Vi. "Just tell me
what made you count us all out just as if we
were going to play tag, Russ, and then what
made you do a flop-over. Tell me that, and
then we'll play the steamboat game."

"All right, I'll answer just those questions
and no more," promised Russ. "Then we'll
have some fun. I counted you all out — one,
two, three, four, five — six — that's me — be-
cause I wanted to see if we were all here."

As there were six little Bunkers, it was

THE SMOKING CHIMNEY 3

sometimes needful to count them, one by one,
to make sure all were on hand. This was
what Russ had done.

"And I turned a somersault when I came to
myself, just because I felt so good," the dark-
haired boy went on with a merry whistle.
"Come on, we'll play the steamboat game now.
Rose, you please get out the spinning wheel,
and Margy and Mun Bun, you bring over the
littlest footstools. Don't bring the big ones,
'cause they're too heavy for you."

"Shall we sit on 'em footstools ?" asked Mun
Bun, as he shook his golden hair out of his
blue eyes.

"Yes, you sit on one footstool and Margy
can sit on the other," said Russ. "Now, don't
both of you try to sit on the same one, or
there'll be a fuss, and we'll never get to play-
ing. Can you bring the spinning wheel all
alone, Rose?"

"Yes, it isn't heavy," answered Rose, the
oldest girl of the six little Bunkers. "It drags
over the floor easy." And as she pulled to the
middle of the attic, from the dark corner where
it had stood all summer, a big, old-fashioned
spinning wheel, Rose hummed a little song.

4 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S •

She generally was humming or singing, when
she was not helping her mother in the house-
work. For where there were so many chil-
dren, there were more matters to attend to
than Mrs. Bunker, Norah, the Irish cook, or
Jerry Simms, the odd-chore man, could well
look after, and Rose was glad to aid. She was
a regular little "mother's helper," and her
father often called her that.

So while Rose brought over the spinning
wheel and Margy and Mun Bun the footstools,
Laddie and Violet appealed to their older
brother.

"I want to do something!" complained Vi.

"So do I," added Laddie. "If I don't do
something I'm goin' to think up another riddle.
I know one about "

"No, you don't!" cried Russ, with a laugh.
"No more riddles until we get the steamboat
started. Here, you bring over some of the
bigger footstools, Laddie. And Vi can help
you. Now we're all working — all six of us;"
and as Russ spoke he began dragging out of
the corners of the attic some chairs and light
boards, with which he intended to build the
"steamboat."

THE SMOKING CHIMNEY 5

Of course it was not a regular vessel, nor
did it sail on water. In fact, there was no
water in the attic of the house where the six
little Bunkers lived. There was no water even
when it rained, for the roof had no holes in
it, and the attic made a lovely place for the
children to play.

It was not raining now, and, if they had
wished, the children could have had fun out in
the yard. But they had just returned from
a jolly vacation spent in the open on Uncle
Fred's ranch in the West, and perhaps they
felt that to play indoors would be a welcome
change. They were as brown as berries from
having been so much out in the sun and the
wind.

"All aboard! All aboard the steamboat!"
called Russ, when the boards, chairs, foot-
stools, spinning wheel and other things had
been put in place near the center of the attic.
"All aboard! Toot! Toot! Don't anybody
fall into the water! Hand me that bundle,
Rose, please," said Russ to his sister nearest
him in age.

"Has it got life preservers in it?" asked
Violet. "If it has, can I put one on, and will

6 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

you let me make believe fall in the water, Russ ?
And will you pull me out, and "

"There you go again! As bad as ever!"
laughed Russ. "No, these aren't life pre-
servers ! They're sugar cookies, and I got them
for us to eat on the steamboat! All aboard!
Toot! Toot!"

"Oh, sugar cookies! I'm glad!" cried Mun
Bun. "I likes sugar cookies, don't you,
Margy?" he asked, as he sat close to his little
sister on the footstool.

"I 'ikes any kind," she lisped, a form of talk
she had not altogether gotten over since her
"baby" days.

"Here we go!" cried Russ at last, and he
took his place in a chair in front of the big
spinning wheel, the package of cookies beside
him. The spinning wheel was the only part
of the "steamboat" that really moved. It
could be turned around in either direction, and
was almost as large, and almost the same
shape, as the big steering wheel on the big, real
steamers. Of course it had no "spokes" on
the outer rim to take hold of, but Russ did not
need them. The spinning wheel was an old
one that had belonged to Mrs. Bunker's great-

THE SMOKING CHIMNEY 7

grandmother, and though the children were
allowed to play with it they were always told
they must be very careful not to break it. And
I must do them the credit to say that they
were, nearly always, very careful.

"All aboard!" called Russ again, just as he
had often heard the men on real boats say it.
"Don't anybody fall off."

"I don't want to fall off till I gets my
cookie," remarked Mun Bun.

"And if we fall we don't have to fall as far
as Russ does, 'cause he's so high up on a chair
and we're low down, on little stools," added
Margy.

"That's so !" laughed Russ, as he twisted the
spinning wheel around, to make believe steer
the steamboat out into the middle of the pre-
tend river.

Of course the steamboat did not move at all.
It just remained in one place on the attic floor.
But the six little Bunkers did not mind that.
They pretended that they were steaming along,
and, every once in a while, Russ would toot
the whistle, or give some order such as might
be given on a real boat.

"When are we goin' to eat?" asked Laddie,

8 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

after a time, during which the boat had made
make-believe stops at London, Paris and As-
bury Park. "Can't I have a sugar cookie,
Russ?"

"Yes, I guess it's time to eat now," agreed
the older boy.

"Whoa, then!" cried Laddie.

"What are you saying 'whoa' for?" de-
manded Russ, looking around.

" 'Cause I want the steamboat to stop," an-
swered Laddie. "It jiggles so — make believe,
you know — I'm afraid I'll drop my sugar
cookie in the water."

"You mustn't say 'whoa' on a boat!" went
on Russ.

"Laddie was thinking he was out on Uncle
Frank's ranch, riding a cow pony, I guess,"
said Rose. "That's why he said 'whoa' ; didn't
you, Laddie?"

"I guess so," answered the little fellow.
"And I know a riddle about a cow. Why is it
that a brown cow eats green grass that makes
white milk and turns into yellow butter?"

"That isn't a riddle — it's just something
funny. And, besides, you've said that before,"
said Rose.

THE SMOKING CHIMNEY 9

"Well, anyhow, can't I have a sugar
cookie?" asked Laddie. "And we'll make be-
lieve the steamboat has stopped, and we can
pretend we're on a picnic."

"All right," agreed Russ, as he gave the
spinning wheel a few more turns. "I'll bank
the fires — that means I'll turn 'em off so they
won't get so hot — and we'll go ashore."

"All ashore !" yelled Laddie.

"Is they enough sugar cookies for all of
us?" asked Mun Bun, as he and Margy arose
from the low stools where they had been sit-
ting.

"Oh, yes, plenty," Russ answered. "I asked
Norah to put a lot of 'em in a bag and I guess
she did. Here, Rose, you can pass 'em around,
and I'll tie the steamboat fast."

"Do you have to tie it same as Uncle Fred
tied his cow ponies?" asked Vi.

"Pretty near the same," her biggest brother
answered. "And after a while we'll "

Russ stopped suddenly and looked at his
sister Rose. She had just passed some of the
cookies to Mun Bun and Margy, and was get-
ting ready to hand one each to Laddie and Vi,
when she saw something that made her point

10 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

to the big brick chimney which passed through
the roof in the middle of the attic.

"Look! Look!" exclaimed Rose.

"What's the matter?" asked Russ.

"The chimney! It's smoking!" went on
Rose.

"That's what chimbleys is for," said Laddie.
"I know a funny riddle about smoke in a chim-
bley and "

"But the smoke from the chimney shouldn't
come out into the room or the attic," inter-
rupted Rose. "I can smell it, and I can see it!
Oh, Russ !" she cried.

"Yes, you can see it and smell it!" agreed
Russ. As he spoke quite a puff of thick smoke
came into the attic. It seemed to spurt right
out of the side of the chimney, at a place where
some bricks were rather loose and had large
cracks between them.

"Oh, Russ !" cried Rose. "Maybe the house
is on fire!"

CHAPTER II

THE CLIMBING MAN

Almost as soon as she had spoken these
words, Rose wished she had not. For looks of
fear came over the faces of Mun Bun and
Margy, and Laddie and Vi, though a little
older, also acted as if frightened. And yet
Rose had spoken what was in her mind. The
smoke poured out into the attic through a hole
in the chimney. It was getting thicker and
more murky, and Mun Bun began to cough.

"Is there a fire?" asked Violet.

"Yes, I think so," answered Rose. And then

it came to her mind that she must not frighten

the smaller children, so she quickly added:

"But I guess it's only a little fire. Maybe

Norah is burning up papers in the stove and

they smoke. I heard her tell mother there was

a lot of trash to be burned since we came back

from Uncle Fred's ranch."

11

12 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Well, she must be burnin' a awful lot !" ex-
claimed Laddie, and he choked as he swallowed
a mouthful of smoke.

Just then a larger cloud of it seemed to pour
out into the attic, and from outside the home
of the six little Bunkers, and from the rooms
below them, came shouts and exclamations.

"Oh, Russ !" exclaimed Rose, looking at her
older brother, "something is the matter, I'm
sure !"

"I guess there is," he agreed, as he ran to a
window. "I'll let some of the smoke out and
then "

He suddenly ceased speaking as he looked
to the street below. To the ears of the other
children, playing in the attic, came a loud
clatter and clang.

"Is it the puffers ?" asked Mun Bun, meaning
the fire apparatus.

"Yes, the engines are all out in front of our
house!" cried Russ. "We'd better get down
out of here. It's too far to jump !"

"Don't dare jump !" screamed Rose. "Come
on, Russ. You take Vi and Laddie and I'll
look after Mun Bun and Margy." And she
caught the two youngest children by their

THE CLIMBING MAN 13

hands and Russ did the same for the twins, Vi
and Laddie.

The smoke continued to grow thicker in the
attic, and the cloud of it was now so dense that
the chimney itself, whence the choking fumes
came, could scarcely be seen.

But under the leadership of Russ and Rose
the four smaller children were being led to
safety, and while this is going on I shall take
the chance to tell some of my new readers
something of the other books in this series, as
well as about the six boys and girls who are to
have a part in this story.

Six was the number of the little Bunkers.
That is, there was an even half dozen of them.
Russ, aged nine years, was a great whistler
and a lad who was often engaged in making
toys, or building something, like make-believe
steamboats or engines, to amuse his smaller
brothers and sisters.

Next to Russ was Rose, a year younger.
As I have told you, she was a great help to
her mother — a girl A cheerful, sunny disposi-
tion, always making the best of everything.

Next came Violet and Laddie. They each
had curly hair and gray eyes, and were twins.

14 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN DEN'S

As you have noticed Vi was a great one for
asking questions. It did not seem to matter
to her what she asked questions about, nor how
many, as long as she could keep some one busy
answering them, or trying to answer. For not
always could answers be found to Vi's ques-
tions. Laddie, her twin brother, had a differ-
ent curious habit. He was always asking
riddles — at least he called them riddles, though
some of them were as funny as Vi's questions.

Last of all in the half dozen little Bunkers
were Margy and Mun Bun. Margy's real
name was Margaret, and the complete name of
her small brother was Munroe Ford Bunker.

Now that we have finished with the children
we will start on the grown-ups of the family.
Daddy Bunker's name was Charles, and he was
in the real estate business in Pineville, Penn-
sylvania. Mother Bunker's name was Amy,
and before her marriage she was Miss Amy
Bell.

Then there was Norah O'Grady, the good-
natured cook, and Jerry Simms, an old soldier
who could tell fine stories about the time he
fought in battle. Of course Norah and Jerry
were not real Bunkers — that is, they were not

THE CLIMBING MAN 15

members of the family. But they had been in
the home of our friends so long that the chil-
dren began to think of these two kind servants
as almost some of their own relatives.

There were enough other relatives in the
Bunker family, too. There was Grandma Bell,
and the first book of this series is named "Six
Little Bunkers at Grandma Bell's." After
some glorious days at their grandmother's, the
six little Bunkers went to Aunt Jo's, next to
Cousin Tom's, after that to Grandpa Ford's,
and then they went out West to a ranch. The
story of their trip there, and what they did,
is set down in the volume just before this one.
It is called "Six Little Bunkers at Uncle
Fred's," and Russ, Rose, and the others had
not long returned from this enjoyable visit
before they began a new series of adventures.

The first of them I have already started to
relate to you. It is about the fire, or at least
the smoke, in the attic where they had been
playing steamboat.

"Russ!" exclaimed Rose, as she made her
way through the smoke-filled room to the
stairs, leading Mun Bun and Margy, while her
oldest brother followed with Vi and Laddie,

16 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"oh, Russ!" went on Rose, "y°u didn't start
any fire in the make-believe boiler of the pre-
tend steamboat, did you?"

"Course — course not!" answered Russ,
somewhat choking over the words, for some
smoke got down his throat. "I never play with
matches !"

"Well, there's a fire somewhere!" declared
Rose.

"Maybe it's across the street," suggested
Russ, "and the smoke just blew in the win-
dows." But, even as he spoke, he looked over
his shoulder and saw smoke pouring out of a
place in the attic chimney where some bricks
were broken loose and large cracks showed.

"It's our chimney that's on fire, all right,"
said Russ to himself. "It's the first fire we
ever had. I want to see the engines work and
squirt water !"

Down the attic stairs to the second floor
went the six little Bunkers. There was very
little smoke on the second floor, and as Russ
and Rose were leading the four smaller ones
toward the head of the stairs they were met by
their mother and Norah rushing up, each of
them out of breath and much excited.

THE CLIMBING MAN 17

"Oh, children! are you all right?" gasped
Mrs. Bunker. "I have been so frightened.
You're all right, aren't you? Not hurt or
burned?"

"We're all right, Mother!" Russ hastened
to say.

"Is our house on fire?" demanded Vi. Even
in this excitement she could not- forget to ask
a question.

"Yes, darlin', the house is burnin'!" cried
Norah. "Oh, sorrow the day I should live to
see this. Oh, come to Norah, little darlin's!"
and she tried to gather in her arms all four of
the smallest children at once.

"Don't frighten them !" called Mrs. Bunker,
as she caught up Mun Bun in one arm, and
Margy in the other. "The house isn't exactly
on fire, children. It's just the chimney. A lot
of soot got in while we were at Uncle Fred's,
and it is the soot which is now burning."

"But I heard a fireman say if the chimney
fire wasn't soon put out it might set the house
afire!" declared Norah, as all of them started
down the front stairs.

There was plenty of excitement now in the
home of the six little Bunkers. Outside could

18 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

be heard the whistle of a fire engine and the
shouts of many men and boys.

Russ, Rose, the other four children and
Mrs. Bunker and Norah safely reached the
first floor. There was no smoke at all here,
as yet. As Russ hurried out on the porch he
saw Jerry Simms running around holding the
garden hose, out of the nozzle of which trickled
a little stream of water.

"Let me get at it !" cried the old soldier, who
acted as gardener and furnace man by turns.
"Let me get at the blaze ! I'll put the fire out
if I can see it !"

"You won't put much of a blaze out with
that stream!" exclaimed a fireman in a rubber
coat, as he hurried up the steps. "There isn't
enough force to it."

"Oh, I forgot to turn the water on full!"
said Jerry Simms. "Wait a minute. I'll go
turn it on full force, and then I'll put out the
blaze," he said, putting the hose down on the
porch and hurrying to the faucet which came
through the foundation wall of the house.

"That won't be any good for this fire, no
matter how much force of water you have,"
cried the fireman. "The fire's down inside the

THE CLIMBING MAN 19

chimney, and we can't get at it until we climb
up on the roof and stick a hose down the flue."

"Is that what you are going to do?" asked
Mrs. Bunker, who was not frightened, now
that she knew her children were safe.

"Yes, we want to get up on the roof so v/e
can turn a hose down the chimney," the fire-
man answered. "But we can't get up!"

"Why not?" asked Russ, who stood near
his mother on the porch, while the yard and
the street around the house were rapidly fill-
ing with people.

"Our ladder isn't long enough," the fireman
answered. "We had a long ladder, but it is
broken, and without it we can't get up on the
roof to pull up a hose and squirt water down
the chimney."

"But something must be done!" cried Mrs.
Bunker. "The more the chimney fire burns,
the hotter it will get, and it may set the whole
house ablaze before long. Something must be
done!"

"Yes'm," agreed the fireman. "We're try-
ing to do something. We got two engines
pumping, and the men are on the ground try-
ing to shoot the water up in the air and let

20 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

some of it fall down the chimney hole. But
they aren't having very good luck. I came to
see if you had a long ladder."

"Oh, a long ladder!" cried the mother of
the six little Bunkers. "You had better ask
Jerry Simms."

"If he's the old man running around with
the garden hose, it won't do much good to ask
him," said the fireman with a smile. "He is so
excited he hardly knows what he is doing."

"Here comes Jerry now ; ask him," suggested
Mrs. Bunker again, while Norah stood hold-
ing to Mun Bun, Laddie, Margy and Violet —
at least she was trying to hold them, though,
every now and again, one of the children would
break away and run to the front fence to watch
the puffing engines.

"Have you a long ladder — one that will
reach to the roof — so we can climb up and pull
a hose to the chimney top ?" asked the fireman,
while the wind blew a swirl of black smoke
around those on the porch.

"A long ladder? Oh, I don't know — I — oh,
good land! I turned the water off instead of
on," cried Jerry, as he looked at the nozzle of
the garden hose which he had laid down on

THE CLIMBING MAN 21

the porch. Not even a trickle was coming
from it now.

"Never mind that ! Get us a ladder !" cried
the fireman. "Ours is broken, and if we don't
douse this chimney pretty soon there'll be a bad
blaze."

"What is it you want ?" cried a man, making
his way to the stoop through a crowd of people
in the yard around the Bunker house.
"What's the trouble? Why don't somebody
get on the roof with a hose?"

"Because we have no ladder long enough
to reach there!" the fireman answered. "If
only somebody could climb up he might "

"Get me a piece of clothesline, and I'll climb
up!" cried the man, taking off his coat. And
as Mrs. Bunker turned to look more closely at
him she gave a cry of surprise.

"Oh, Captain Ben !" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker.

CHAPTER III

THE INVITATION

m

cOh, ho! So you know me then, do you?"
cried the man who had so suddenly and unex-
pectedly appeared and offered to climb to the
roof of the house where the chimney was on
fire.

"Yes, I know you by your picture," an-
swered Mrs. Bunker. "But I never expected
to see you so soon. Where did you come
from?"

"No time to talk now — excuse me — got to
hustle as I did in the army in France !" was the
answer. "I'll tell you all about it later. Now,
if you'll get me a clothesline, I'll climb to the
roof and put out the chimney fire!"

"You can't put out a fire with a clothesline,
can you?" asked Violet. "Don't you need a
hose?"

"Yes, little girl. I don't know what your

THE INVITATION 23

name is, but I'll find out later," said the man
who had been called "Captain Ben" by Mrs.
Bunker. "What I want the clothesline for is
to carry it up to the roof with me. I can't take
a hose, but I can tie the rope around my waist,
climb up, and then the fireman can tie the end
of the hose to the line. Then I can haul up
the hose, the fireman can turn on the water, I'll
squirt the water down the blazing chimney,
and the fire will soon be out."

"Oh!" exclaimed Vi. She very seldom had
such a long answer given to any of the ques-
tions she asked. "Oh," she said again.

"Where's a clothesline?" cried Captain Ben.

"I'll get you one," offered Norah, and she
rushed around to the side yard, coming back
in a few seconds with a long, trailing length
of line she had cut from the posts. Meanwhile
more and more black smoke was coming from
the chimney, and some was drifting out of the
attic window Russ had opened.

"Good! Thank you!" exclaimed Captain
Ben.

"Do you think the house is catching fire?"
asked Mrs. Bunker of the chief of the depart-
ment, who came up on the porch just then.

24 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Not yet; but it may soon," he answered.
"What are we going to do ?" he went on. "We
have no ladder to get to the roof, and "

"This gentlemen is going to climb up to the
roof for us," interrupted the fireman who had
been talking to Mrs. Bunker. He pointed to
Captain Ben, who was making some loops in
the clothesline that Norah had brought him.

"How's he going to get to the top of the
high roof of this house when we can't get up
ourselves without long ladders ?" asked the fire
chief. "And our long ladder is broken. How
are you going to get up, if I may ask ?" he in-
quired of Captain Ben.

"You don't need to ask one of Uncle Sam's
soldier-sailors a question like that," was the
answer. "I was one of the marines in the late
war, and doing hard things is just what the
marines like. I'll show you how I'm going to
get up to the roof without a ladder. Be ready
to bend on the hose when I give the word."

"We'll be all ready," the fire chief promised.
"I'm ashamed of our department for not being
able to put out a simple chimney fire before
this, but I didn't know our long ladder was
broken. That makes all the trouble."

THE INVITATION 25

"The trouble will soon be over when I get
up there!" declared the young soldier with a
look at Russ, Rose, and the other little Bunk-
ers. They all wondered who he was and how
it was their mother knew him from having
seen his picture. Not even Russ., the oldest,
remembered any relative named Captain Ben.

"Now we're all ready!" exclaimed the for-
mer marine, as he had called himself. "We'll
have this fire out in no time !"

He seemed to know just what to do, and
even the fire chief was waiting for Captain
Ben. With the clothesline tied around his
shoulders in a knot that could quickly be loosed,
the stranger ran to a large copper rain pipe
fastened to the side of the house. Near the
rain pipe, or leader, as it is called, was1 also a
lightning rod, and there was a strong ivy vine
growing and climbing up a wire trellis which
was nailed on the wall of the house.

"Up I go!" cried Captain Ben, and in an-
other moment he was going up the side of the
house, climbing hand over hand by means of
the lightning rod, the copper leader, and the
vine. None of these, alone, would have been
strong enough to have held him, but by using

26 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

all three together the soldier-sailor managed
to get up to the roof.

The roof of the Bunker house, where the
blazing chimney came through, was a peaked
one, though it was not of a very sleep slant.
Russ wondered how Captain Ben was going
to climb this peak, which was like a hill, only
covered with shingles. But the sailor had on
low shoes with rubber soles, and these did not
let him slip. Stooping down, and helping him-
self along with his hands when he reached the
roof, Captain Ben made his way close to the
chimney.

From it now could be seen coming flames and
sparks as well as smoke, and it began to look
as though the whole house might soon be
ablaze.

"Fasten on the hose!" suddenly called Cap-
tain Ben.

On the ground below firemen made fast to
the lower end of the clothesline the length of
hose from which the water had been turned
off.

"If their hose isn't enough I'll let 'em have
mine," said Jerry Simms, who now had the
water turned full on in the garden line. And

THE INVITATION 27

he was so excited that, before he knew it, he
had sent a shower of spray up on the porch.

"Mind what you're doing, Jerry!" called
Norah. "Be easy now !"

"Oh, excuse me!" begged the old soldier.
"I'm so excited I don't know at all what I'm
doing!"

He turned the hose aside, but this time he
sprayed the fire chief and one of his men. But
as they had on rubber coats and rubber boots,
as well as thick helmets, they did not mind the
water in the least and only laughed.

By this time other firemen had fastened an
empty line of hose to the end of the clothes-
line. The other end of the rope was held by
Captain Ben on the roof of the Bunker home,
and now he began hauling up.

"I have it!" he cried as he reached the noz-
zle, and took off the clothesline. "Wait until
I get close to the chimney, and then turn on
the water."

"All right!" the chief answered.

Captain Ben, in his rubber-soled shoes that
did not slip on the shingle roof, crawled over
until he was close to the blazing chimney. It
was low enough for him to point the hose right

28 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

down in it, and when he had done this he
shouted :

"Turn on the water!"

"Turn on the water !" echoed the chief. The
hose, that was almost like a big snake trying
to climb up the side of the house of the six
little Bunkers, straightened out and twisted
as the water filled it, being pumped in by one
of the engines.

Captain Ben directed the stream down the
blazing chimney. There were puffs of steam,
the white clouds of which mingled with the
black smoke of the chimney, and the water
poured down into the kitchen, spurting out of
the range where the fire had been built. The
water put out the fire in the stove, as well as
the fire in the chimney, and made muddy pud-
dles on Norah's kitchen floor. But this could
not be helped. It was better to have a little
water in the house than a lot of fire.

"How are you making out?" the chief
called up to Captain Ben on the Koof.

"Fine!" was the answer. "The fire is al-
most out!"

And it was all out a minute or two later.
Then the water was shut off, so that the house

THE INVITATION 29

would not be flooded, and Captain Ben dropped
the hose from the roof down to the ground.

"Is he going to jump down, Mother ?" asked
Vi, who, with the others of the family, stood
in the side yard, where they could all get a
view of the roof on which stood Captain Ben.

"No, indeed, he will not jump down!" said
Mrs. Bunker.

"I guess he'll climb down the same way he
went up — like a monkey," said Laddie. "He's
a good climber. Some day I'm going to climb
up to the roof like Captain Ben did. But who
is he, Mother? Is he what Uncle Fred is to
us?"

"Not exactly," was the answer. "I'll tell
you about Captain Ben a little later when there
isn't so much excitement. He is coming down
now, and I must thank him for what he
did."

"I want to thank him, too," said the fire
chief. "I'd never have thought of getting to
the roof that way. But it's a good thing he
did, or that chimney might be burning yet."

Captain Ben made his way down the vine,
the lightning rod, and the copper pipe as he
had gone up. Several in the crowd gathered

30 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

about him, and many told him he had done
just the right thing. But Captain Ben paid
little attention to these strangers. He made
his way to where Mrs. Bunker stood with the
six little Bunkers gathered about her.

"I didn't expect my visit would have so much
excitement connected with it," he said, with a
smile, as he put on his coat. "But I arrived
just about the same time as did the engines. I
saw what the trouble was, and decided that
was the best way to help."

"I am glad you did," remarked Mrs. Bunker.
"Though I have not seen you for several years,
I knew you at once by your picture, which I
recently saw in the paper. You evidently got
safely back from the war."

"Yes, I got nothing worse than a few
scratches. But, unless I am much mistaken,
here comes Mr. Bunker."

"Oh, here's Daddy!" cried Rose, as a very
much excited man rushed up the front walk,
pushing his way in among the throng that had
been attracted by the alarm of fire.

"Are you all right? Is anyone hurt? How
did it happen? Is the fire out?" asked Daddy
Bunker, and, really, be asked almost as many

THE INVITATION 31

questions as Violet would have done had she
had the chance.

"Yes, we are all safe !" answered Mrs. Bun-
ker. "No one hurt and very little damage
done. But I have a surprise for you ! Look !"
and she stepped from in front of the marine
who had put out the blazing chimney.

"Captain Ben!" cried Daddy Bunker.
"Where in the world did you come from ?"

"Just back from the war," was the answer,
as Captain Ben shook hands with Daddy Bun-
ker. "I'm going to take a long rest, and I
came to bring an invitation to you — to you
and the six little Bunkers," he went on, looking
from one of the children to the other.

"An invitation!" cried Rose.

"Yes, and I do hope you will accept," said
Captain Ben. "The summer is not quite over,"
he went on to Mr. and Mrs. Bunker, "and I'm
sure these youngsters will be all the better for
some more vacation. Let's go in, away from
the crowd, and I'll explain about my invita-
tion."

And each and every one of the six little
Bunkers wondered what was going to happen.

CHAPTER IV

ANOTHER VACATION

Captain Ben, as both Daddy and Mother
Bunker had called him, caught up in his arms
Mun Bun and Margy. He was so big and
strong that the children seemed feathers to
him, and he easily held them both on one arm.
Then he reached down his other hand and took
the two hands of Laddie and Vi in his.

"Now come on!" cried Captain Ben, laugh-
ing. "I have four of the half dozen little
Bunkers, and the other two can hang on my coat
tails. Let's go in and have a nice talk and
visit."

"Yes! Yes!" cried Mun Bun and Margy
and Laddie and Violet.

"Where are we going and what are you
going to tell us?" asked Vi, not forgetting,
even in all the excitement about the fire, to

32

ANOTHER VACATION 33

ask her usual questions. "What are we going
to do?"

"Oh, you'll find plenty to do — all six of you
— if you come to my seashore place !" laughed
Captain Ben. "That's what I came especially
to talk about," he went on to Daddy and
Mother Bunker. "I want to get out of my
mind all thoughts of the great war, and if I
can have this happy bunch of children around
me it will be the best thing in the world. You'll
let them come, and you'll come with them,
won't you?" he asked, as he stood on the door
sill.

"We just got back from Uncle Fred's !" an-
swered Mr. Bunker. "I don't see how we can
give the children another vacation so soon
after they have just finished one. But I do
want to have you pay us a long visit, Captain
Ben. And we'll go in, as you say, and talk.
But I must first make sure that the fire is out.
Some one telephoned to me at the office that
my house was burning up. I ran out, hailed
the first man I saw in an auto, and he brought
me here flying. I can't tell you how glad I
was when I saw the house still standing."

"It isn't really harmed at all," said Captain

34 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Ben. "The chimney is used to having a fire in
it, and all that happened in the kitchen is that
a little water got spilled. Don't worry about
the fire any more. Let's go in and talk. I
want to get down to my place at the shore, and
take 3^ou there with me."

Indeed there was no more danger from the
fire. The crowd, seeing there was no further
excitement, began to move away. The fire-
men coiled up their hose, and the engines and
carts rumbled away. Norah shook her head
dubiously as she saw the sloppy kitchen that
she always kept so clean and bright, but Jerry
Simms consoled her.

"I'll help you mop it up, Norah !" he kindly
offered. "Water is easily gotten rid of — much
more easily than fire. I'll help you clean up."

Norah was very thankful for this, and soon
she and Jerry were busy setting things to
rights in the kitchen while Daddy and Mother
Bunker, with the children and Captain Ben,
went into the sitting room. There was a smell
of smoke all over, but no one minded this.
Norah felt very bad, thinking that she might
be blamed for the fire, since the chimney caught
from the blaze she started in the kitchen range.

ANOTHER VACATION 35

Mrs. Bunker realized this, and so she said:

"Don't worry, Norah. It would have hap-
pened to anyone. If I had started the fire the
chimney would have caught just the same as
it did when you started it."

"Well, I'm glad to hear you say that," re-
marked Norah, as she and Jerry continued the
cleaning-up work.

The excitement caused by the fire was over
now, and a little later the Bunker family, in-
cluding the half dozen children of course, and
Captain Ben were sitting down and talking like
old friends. In fact, they were all old friends
except the new man who had climbed up on the
roof to put out the fire.

"What makes you call him Captain Ben?"
asked Vi, as she looked up at the stranger.

"Because he is Captain Ben," answered Mrs.
Bunker. "And he is one of our relations, chil-
dren!"

"My, what a lot of relations we have!" ex-
claimed Laddie. And when they all laughed
he made haste to add : "But I like 'em all and
I like you." He said this as he stood near the
knees of Captain Ben.

"I'm glad you do," said the sailor-soldier.

36 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"And I hope we shall all become better ac-
quainted and have good times together."

"Will you tell us about the war?" asked
Rose. "Jerry Simms tells us lots of funny
stories about the war he was in."

"This was a different war," said Captain
Ben, "and I may be able to think of something
funny about it. I'll try, anyhow. But now
let's talk about going away. I want to get as
far from the war as I can, and I think my place
at the seashore will take my mind off it — espe-
cially if I can have you children with me."

"I'll have to see about that," said Daddy
Bunker, with a smile. "But at least we can
talk about it."

So they talked, and Mother Bunker told the
children that Captain Ben was a distant rela-
tive of hers, whom she had not seen for a long
time. But his picture had been printed in the
paper as one of the heroes of the war, and
though Mrs. Bunker had not seen him for some
years, she knew him the moment he rushed up
on the porch to help in putting out the fire.

"Is Captain Ben like Cousin Fred?" asked
Russ, when the matter of relationship was be-
ing talked about.

ANOTHER VACATION 37

"He is a sort of cousin," answered Mother
Bunker, "but I think it will be better if we all
call him Captain Ben."

"I am most used to hearing that," said the
soldier. "That is what I was in the marine
corps — a captain. And though I am dis-
charged now, many of my friends still call me
captain."

"I like a captain," said Rose. "I think it's
ever so much nicer than a general or a major.
They always sound like names of dogs; but a
captain is nice."

"I am glad you think so!" laughed Captain
Ben, and so he was called that by the children.

"But what's your last name?" asked Vi.
You might have known she would find some
question to ask, and she did.

"My last name is Barsey," was the answer
of Captain Ben. "But I don't imagine you
children will have much use for it. Just say
Captain Ben and I'll know who you mean."

There was more talk and laughter, and the
six little Bunkers began to feel very well ac-
quainted with Captain Ben. At dinner he told
something of how he had enlisted and fought
in the war, but he did not dwell much on this,

38 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

for he guessed, rightly, that Mr. and Mrs.
Bunker did not want to have the children think
too much about the terrible fighting that had
taken place in France.

"And so, after I was discharged and was
free to leave the army, I decided to take a long
rest," said Captain Ben. "As you know,
Cousin Amy," he said to Mrs. Bunker, "I have
a very nice bungalow down on the Jersey coast
at Grand View. It is all ready for me to go
down there and spend the rest of the summer,
and I want you all to come with me."

"Is there any more summer?" asked Laddie.
"I thought we spent all the summer at Uncle
Fred's."

"There is still some summer left," answered
Captain Ben.

"That sounds funny!" laughed Laddie.
"Some summer! Maybe I could make up a
riddle about it."

"Do you like riddles?" asked Captain Ben.

"Oh, yes!" exclaimed Vi's twin brother.
"Do you know any?"

"I might think of one," the young marine
replied. "Let me see. Can you tell me when
a door is like a little mouse?"

ANOTHER VACATION 39

"A door like a little mouse !" exclaimed Rose.
"I never heard of such a thing. A door can't
be like a mouse because it's too big — I mean
the door is."

"Oh, yes it can!" said Laddie, quickly.
"Things in riddles can be like anything they
want to. Don't tell me, Captain Ben!" he
begged. "Let me see if I can guess it myself!"

"It isn't very hard," the soldier-sailor said.
"I just happened to think of it, and perhaps
you won't call it a riddle at all. But when is
a door like a mouse?"

"Is it when it sticks fast and won't open?"
asked Rose.

"A mouse can't open and shut!" objected
Russ.

"It can open and shut its mouth, and a door
can open and shut," said Laddie, who seemed
to know more about riddles than any of his
brothers or sisters.

"Is that the answer?" inquired Russ, while
Mun Bun and Margy stood silently looking at
Captain Ben.

"No, that isn't the answer," replied the sol-
dier from France. "I guess I'll tell you, for
you've had enough excitement to-day. A door

40 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

is like a mouse when it squeaks. The door's
hinges squeak, you know, and the little mouse
squeaks when he finds a piece of cheese."

"That's a good riddle!" declared Laddie.
"I'm going to remember that, and ask Jerry
Simms and Norah."

A little later supper was served, and at the
table Captain Ben told more about his bun-
galow at Grand View.

"You have been to the seashore," he said to
the six little Bunkers, "so there is no need to
tell you how nice the ocean and the beach is to
rest near. But Grand View is especially nice,
because my bungalow is up on a high bluff
and you can look away off across the water to
a place called Sandy Hook."

"Do they catch fishes on Sandy Hook?"
asked Rose, with a laugh.

"No, not exactly," answered Captain Ben.
"Sandy Hook is a place "

"We know, thank you," said Russ. "We
passed near Sandy Hook when we went to At-
lantic Highlands on our way to Cousin Tom's
at Seaview."

"How did you like the seashore?" asked
Captain Ben.

ANOTHER VACATION 41

"Oh, we love it!" cried Rose, and all the
other Bunkers echoed this. "Of course it was
nice at Uncle Fred's ranch out West," Rose
went on. "But the seashore is so nice and
cool."

"Then I'll take you all there for another
vacation !" said Captain Ben. "You don't need
to unpack any more of your things," he went
on to Daddy and Mother Bunker. "Just leave
them as they are, load them in my auto, and
we'll all go to my seaside bungalow at Grand
View."

"Has you got a big auto?" asked Mun Bun,
speaking for the first time in nearly half an
hour.

"Yes, I have a great big machine," said Cap-
tain Ben. "I left it at a garage in town while
I looked you folks up, as I was not sure where
you lived. And you can guess how surprised
I was to see a crowd of people in front of the
house, to which the postman directed me, and
to see fire and smoke coming out of the chim-
ney."

"We were surprised, too," said Russ, as he
started out on the porch to bring in the even-
ing paper the boy had just tossed up. "We

43 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

were playing steamboat in the attic, and a lot
of smoke came out and "

"Don't talk any more about it," begged
Mother Bunker. "I don't want it to get on
your minds, or you may not sleep. I shall
never forget how frightened I was."

"All the more reason for the whole family
coming and spending the rest of the season
with me," urged Captain Ben. "It is still late
summer, and the fall is really the best part of
the year to be at the shore. You'll come,
won't you?" he asked Mr. Bunker.

The father of the six little Bunkers shook
his head.

"It is too near school time," he said. "The
new term will open next week. That, really, is
what made us come back from the ranch. I
don't want the children, especially the two older
ones, to miss any of their classes. No, Cap-
tain Ben, I am sure we're all much obliged to
you for your kind invitation, but it will be im-
possible for us to go on account of school."

"Oh, dear !" sighed Rose, and looks of disap-
pointment came over the faces of the other
children when they heard this.

"Nonsense !" exclaimed Captain Ben. "Los-

ANOTHER VACATION 43

ing a week or so of school will not matter. I
have just set my heart on the six little Bunkers
coming to my seashore bungalow."

Again Daddy Bunker shook his head. But,
as the looks of sorrow deepened on the faces
of Rose and the others, Russ came running in
off the porch with the evening paper. He gen-
erally opened it and read the headings before
delivering it to his father or mother.

"Oh, look! Look at this!" cried Russ as,
holding the opened paper out in front of him,
he hastened in where the others were. "I
guess we can go to Captain Ben's after all!
Look what's in the paper !"

CHAPTER V

THE MISSING WATCH

"What's the matter? Oh, let me see!"
begged Rose, as Russ came in with a flutter-
ing paper. "Are we going to have another
school play?"

There had been one the previous winter, and
Rose and Russ had taken part in it. Their pic-
tures, as well as those of other young per-
formers, were in the newspaper, and Russ and
Rose were quite proud of this.

"No, it isn't another school play," Russ an-
swered. "But there was an accident at our
school, and now it can't open when it was going
to. Oh, I'm glad! Now we don't have to go
back to school and we can go to Captain Ben's
bungalow at Grand View !"

"Let me see," requested Mr. Bunker, reach-
ing out one hand for the paper, while with the

44

THE MISSING WATCH 45

other he sought for his glasses in his vest
pocket.

"Yes, that's right," he said, after he had
read the item on the front page, the sight of
which had so excited Russ. "There has been
an accident at Montgomery school, where our
children go."

"An accident!" exclaimed Mother Bunker.
"Was any one hurt?"

"No, it wasn't that sort of accident," her
husband answered. "It was just a break in
the water pipes and the boiler that heats the
school in cold weather. Of course they will
not need heat right away, but the boiler will
have to be fixed, and it will take over a month.
This article in the paper says that the opening
of Montgomery school will be postponed for a
month. That means our six little Bunkers will
not have to go back to their classes as soon as
we thought they would," he added.

"All the better for me !" cried Captain Ben.
"Now I can take you all to Grand View in my
auto. You won't have any objections now, will
you?" he asked Mr. Bunker.

"No," answered the father of Russ and the
other five children, "I don't see how I can ob-

46 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S'

ject. As I told you, we came back from the
West mainly on account of school, and if we
had known in time that the Montgomery build-
ing was not to open we would have stayed at
Uncle Fred's ranch."

"I'm glad you didn't," laughed Captain Ben.
"For now I can have you visit me. I'll go right
uptown and get my automobile, as I see you
have a garage here. Then we'll all be ready
to start for the seashore in the morning."

"Oh, my goodness! we can't go so soon as
that" cried Mrs. Bunker.

"Why not?" asked the captain.

"I have to look over the children's clothes
and see what they need for this second, unex-
pected vacation. We couldn't possibly get
ready for to-morrow."

"Well, the next day, then," insisted Captain
Ben. "I'll go and get my auto and have it all
ready."

"No, we can't go the next day, either," Mrs.
Bunker answered with a laugh. "Why are
you in such a hurry?"

"I learned that in the army, I guess," re-
marked the soldier. "But how soon can you
go?"

THE MISSING WATCH 47

"In about a week, I think," was the answer,
and with that Captain Ben must needs be con-
tent.

He arose to go after his automobile, which
he had left in a public garage uptown, and Rose
and Russ obtained permission to go with him
and ride back. The other children also wanted
to go, but it was a little too far for their short
legs.

"Oh, say, this is a dandy big car !" exclaimed
Russ, as he and his sister climbed into it for
the ride back home.

"Glad you like it," said Captain Ben. "We'll
need all the room there is to take six little
Bunkers and all their baggage to the shore for
a second vacation."

The next few days were busy ones in the
Bunker home. Every one was so occupied,
helping to unpack, pack and get ready, that
Laddie had no time to ask Norah or Jerry
Simms about the riddle of the mouse and the
squeaking door. But he did not forget it, and
he thought he might find some one at Captain
Ben's place at the shore whom he might puzzle
with the riddle.

The damage done by the chimney fire was

48 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

soon cleared away and the chimney repaired,
and the day after the newspaper contained an
account of the happening. It interested the six
little Bunkers almost as much as did the ac-
count of the accident to the Montgomery
school.

On making some inquiries, Mr. Bunker
found that what the paper had stated about
the needed repairs at the school was true. No
classes could start for more than a month after
the date set for the regular opening of the
other schools, and therefore the children could
remain away without getting any black marks.
There was no room for the pupils of Mont-
gomery school in any of the other schools of
Pineville.

As I have said, these were busy days at the
Bunker home during the visit of Captain Ben,
for he stayed at the Bunker residence until it
was time to go to the seashore. Captain Ben
helped pack, too, and he seemed to know just
how to do it.

"This was another thing I learned when I
was a marine," he said, as he showed Mrs.
Bunker how to get more into a trunk than she
had ever supposed it would hold.

THE MISSING WATCH 49

Margy and Mun Bun, Laddie and Vi and
Rose and Russ also helped pack, though, to tell
you the truth, I do not believe that the four
smallest children really did much helping. But
they thought they did, and this gave them as
much joy as if they had done it all themselves.

"Time to stop and eat!" exclaimed Captain
Ben one noon, when several valises and trunks
had been filled in readiness for the trip next
day. "It's twelve o'clock," and he looked at a
watch he wore on his wrist.

"Does your watch keep good time?" asked
Violet.

"Yes, it is a very good watch," was the an-
swer. "It was given to me by a French soldier
who was hurt in the great war. I think a great
deal of this watch, and I would not want to
lose it. The man who gave it to me was in
great danger, and I was able to help him out
of it. He gave me this wrist watch as a keep-
sake. I prize it very much."

Though Captain Ben did not say so, he had
really saved the life of the French soldier, ven-
turing out on the battlefield and bringing in
the wounded man.

The watch was an expensive gold one, set in

50 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

a strong leather strap, which was buckled
about Captain Ben's wrist. Wearing the
watch there enabled the former soldier to see
what time it was without stopping to fish in his
pocket for his time piece.

As the watch had indicated, it was noon —
twelve o'clock — and soon the six little Bunkers
were sitting down to the table. They talked
over their plans as they ate the meal.

Large as was Captain Ben's auto, it would
hardly hold the eight Bunkers, himself and
the baggage that first would be needed. So it
was decided that Mother Bunker would go
down to Grand View on the train, taking Mun
Bun and Margy with her. That would leave
Daddy Bunker, Captain Ben, Russ, Rose, Lad-
die and Vi to come in the soldier's big car.
They would have room enough then for several
valises.

The rest of the afternoon and part of the
next morning was spent in packing, while Mrs.
Bunker made arrangements for again shutting
the house up, after having opened it on her
return from the West.

"This year has been the longest vacation
the children ever had," she remarked. "Good-

THE MISSING WATCH 51

ness! it doesn't seem any time at all since we
started for Uncle Fred's, and here we are
starting off on another trip."

"I hope you will like my place," said Cap-
tain Ben, as he finished strapping a large
valise. "I wish we might have started a little
earlier to-day, but I think we shall get there
before dark."

"I think I shall be there ahead of you, going
as I am in the train with Margy and Mun
Bun," said Mrs. Bunker.

"I am not so sure about that !" laughed Cap-
tain Ben. "My auto can travel very fast when
I get started. But what time does your train
go?

"At ten o'clock," answered the children's
mother. "How much time have I?"

Captain Ben thrust out his arm as he al-
ways did when he wanted to look at his wrist
watch, and, as he glanced down, an appearance
of surprise came over his face.

"Why, my watch is gone!" he exclaimed.

"Gone?" echoed Mrs. Bunker. "Did you
take it off and put it down somewhere?"

"No, I haven't had it off to-day," was the
answer. "I had it on just before I strapped

53 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

that valise! It must have accidentally come
off! I must find it! I wouldn't have that
watch lost for anything!"

He began looking about the room.

"I'll call the children," offered Mrs. Bunker.
"One of them may have seen it. Oh, Russ!
Rose!" she called. "Come, children, and see
if you can find Captain Ben's missing watch."

MRS. BUNKER AND THE TWO SMALLER CHILDREN STARTED FOR
THE RAILROAD STATION.

Six Little Bunkers at Captain Ben's *age 55

CHAPTER VI

OFF TO GRAND VIEW

The six little Bunkers, who had been scurry-
ing around all over the house, helping, or at
least thinking they were helping, to get ready
for the trip, gathered in the big living room at
the sound of their mother's voice.

"What's the matter?" asked Vi, beginning
her usual questioning. "Is the chimney on fire
again?"

"No," answered her mother. "But Captain
Ben has lost his watch — the one the French sol-
dier gave him. He thinks it became loose when
he was helping pack the valises and trunks;
so look around, children."

So the search began, but it was without re-
sult. Everything on the floor was lifted up,
trunks and valises were moved aside, and even
Norah and Jerry came in to help look. How-

53

54 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

ever, the watch could not be found, though the
six little Bunkers aided all they could.

"Can't we go to Captain Ben's if he doesn't
find his watch?" asked Vi.

"Oh, yes, that won't keep us from the trip,"
said the sailor-soldier. The marines are both
soldiers and sailors, so either name fitted them.
"But I would like to find my watch," Captain
Ben added.

"Oh, I guess I got it — I mean I guess I
stepped on it !" suddenly exclaimed Laddie, as
he trod on something that was under a piece
of paper.

There was an anxious moment, but when the
paper was lifted up all that was under it was
a tin whistle that Mun Bun had been playing
with.

"Oh, dear!" said Laddie. "I thought sure
I had it!"

The watch remained unfound, but the pack-
ing went on. Soon it was time for Mrs. Bun-
ker to start for the train with Margy and Mun
Bun. They were to go on ahead, as the way
to Grand View by the train was longer than
by the automobile road.

Captain Ben was to take Mrs. Bunker and

OFF TO GRAND VIEW 55

the two smaller children to the railroad station
in his car, leaving Mr. Bunker to attend to the
last details of the packing with Russ and Rose,
Violet and Laddie. Of course, Jerry Simms
and Norah also helped.

"Good-bye, children! I'll see you at Grand
View!" called Mother Bunker, waving her
hand to her four children as she sat beside
Mun Bun and Margy in the automobile.

"Good-bye!" echoed Russ and the others.
And the two smaller Bunkers waved their
hands. They were delighted at the idea of a
ride in the steam cars.

In a little while Captain Ben came back
from the station with his empty automobile.
As he alighted to go into the house, to see that
the others were ready for the trip, he thrust
out his left arm and looked down at his
wrist.

"Oh, I forgot my watch was lost," he said
with a grim laugh. "I have been so used to
looking at the time that it comes natural to
stick out my hand where I can get a good view
of my wrist. Well, if my watch is gone — it's
gone — that's all there is to it."

"Maybe Norah will find it after we have

56 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

left," suggested Rose. "Lots of times she
finds things we lose."

"I hope she does," echoed Captain Ben.
"Well, never mind the watch now. Let's get
ready to start. We must be off. It is getting
late!"

The last valise was strapped shut, the ex-
pressman had taken the trunks that did not
go as baggage, and now the four little Bunkers
with their father and Captain Ben, went out
on the porch, after saying good-bye to Norah
and Jerry Simms.

Into the captain's big car piled the four chil-
dren.

"It seems funny not to have mother and
Margy and Mun Bun with us, doesn't it?"
asked Rose, as she took her place with Russ,
Vi and Laddie, her father and Captain Ben
being in the front seat.

"Yes, it does," agreed Russ. "But we'll be
with them to-night again, won't we, Captain
Ben?" he asked.

"Oh, yes, we'll all be at my bungalow at
Grand View this evening," said the sailor-sol-
dier. "Your mother may get there first, but
I have told her where to find the keys, so she

OFF TO GRAND VIEW 57

can get everything all ready if she gets there
ahead of us."

"Well, I think we're all ready to start," said
Daddy Bunker at length. "Everything is all
right, isn't it, Norah?"

"Oh, yes," answered the cook. "But it's
sorry I am to see you go away again so soon
after coming home. You're taking two vaca-
tions the same summer, children."

"Yes, and it's lots of fun !" cried Russ. "I'm
glad the boiler in the school got leaky. I
didn't want to go back so soon, anyhow."

Final good-byes were said, and then Cap-
tain Ben started his automobile down the
street, the four children looking back as long
as they could see Norah and Jerry Simms and
waving farewells to them.

Out through the streets of Pineville they
rode, Rose and Russ calling to various children
of their acquaintance whom they met.

"Did you ride in this kind of an auto in
France?" asked Russ of Captain Ben.

"Not very often," was the answer. "I had
to walk most of the time, and I was glad I
could. Lots of poor fellows were so crippled
they couldn't walk."

58 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Do you know any French riddles ?" Laddie
wanted to know, as they turned out on a coun-
try road.

"French riddles?" repeated Captain Ben.
"Do you mean you want me to tell you a riddle
in the French language?"

Laddie shook his curly head.

"I don't know how to speak French," he
said. "What I want is a French riddle that
will be different from any riddle I know in
English."

"I'm sorry, but I can't think of any," replied
Captain Ben Barsey.

"Could you tell us a funny story about the
war?" asked Russ.

Captain Ben thought for a moment.

"There wasn't very much chance to have
fun when the fighting was going on," he an-
swered, "but of course I didn't have to fight
all the while. I remember once, being in a
trench — that's like the big ditch over there,"
and he pointed to one at the side of the road
along which the automobile was traveling at
the time.

"Did you sleep in the ditch?" asked Vi.

"Yes," answered Captain Ben, "at times we

OFF TO GRAND VIEW 59

slept in the trench ditch, and very often we ate
in them. I was going to tell you about a funny
thing that happened to me when I was getting
ready to eat my dinner in a trench one day.

"We had been fighting all morning, but had
stopped about noon, and then they brought us
soldiers in the trench something to eat. I was
very hungry and so were my friends. I got
a piece of bread and some meat and made my-
self a sandwich. I also had a tincup of coffee.

"I laid the sandwich down on a stone for a
moment to take a drink of coffee, and when
next I reached out my hand for the bread and
meat I felt it jump away."

"Oh, was it alive?" asked Russ.

"Well, I thought so, for a moment," an-
swered the captain. "But when I looked, after
getting over my first surprise, I saw that I had
put my hand on a big, gray rat. He had come
out of his hole in the trench and was eating my
bread and meat. Of course he moved when I
touched him."

"I'm glad I wasn't there," said Rose. "I
don't like rats !"

"I wish I could just look at him — but that's
all," said Russ.

60 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Did you make him give you back your sand-
wich ?" questioned Vi.

"Hardly!" laughed Captain Ben. "I didn't
want it after the rat had nibbled it. So I
shooed him away, and managed to get some
more bread and meat. But I'll never forget
how funny it seemed when I thought I felt
my sandwich moving under my hand."

The children laughed at this story of the
funny side of war, and by this time the auto-
mobile was well away from Pineville and on
the way to Grand View.

"I think this is the nicest summer I ever
knew," said Rose to Russ. "We are having
two vacations."

"It is lots of fun," he agreed.

Laddie was saying little. He seemed very
sober.

"What's the matter?" Rose asked him.

"I know a good riddle about an automobile,
but I can't just think of it," said the little boy.
"I want to ask Captain Ben a riddle, but I can't
think of the right one."

"Don't worry!" laughed the sailor-soldier.
"I'll be with you the rest of the summer, and
you can ask me all the riddles you think of."

OFF TO GRAND VIEW 61

"Oh, I can think of a lot !" declared Laddie.
"But I have an extra good one about an auto,
only I don't know what it is."

As the automobile was passing through a
little country village, Vi saw a candy store,
where, also, soda water was sold.

"Can't we stop here and get a drink?" she
asked. "I'm thirsty !"

"Yes, we can stop," her father said, and he
was just asking Captain Ben to slow up at the
store when a woman ran from it in great ex-
citement, waving her hands and calling aloud :

"Stop! Stop! Oh, wait a minute! Some-
thing terrible has happened! Oh, come in!
Come in !"

And from the store, out of which the woman
had rushed, came a loud hissing sound, while
what seemed to be a lot of steam, or a spray
of water, floated from the door behind her.

CHAPTER VII

THE STORM

Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker, on the
front seat of the automobile, looked in aston-
ishment at the excited woman and at the white
spray coming from her little store.

Russ and Rose and Laddie and Violet, four
of the six little Bunkers in the rear of the car,
were also much surprised, wondering what had
happened.

"It must be a fire !" exclaimed Russ, remem-
bering what had happened that day he and the
others were playing* steamboat in the attic,
when the chimney began to smoke in the wrong
way.

"What makes the fire?" questioned Vi. It
was just like her to ask a question at this
critical time.

As for Laddie, he said nothing. But his
eyes opened big and round, and perhaps he was

62

THE STORM 63

trying to think up a riddle about the woman
who had rushed from the store with a cloud
of steam behind her.

And this woman — the one who owned the
candy store — was still waving her hands and
crying excitedly to Captain Ben and Daddy
Bunker.

"Oh come in ! Please come in and see what
the matter is !" she begged.

By this time Captain Ben had stopped the
automobile, and he was getting out, followed
by Mr. Bunker. The latter turned to Russ,
Rose, Vi and Laddie and said :

"Now you little Bunkers stay right in the
car until we see what the matter is."

"Can't I come and see, too?" Vi asked.

"No, indeed! There may be danger!" her
father said.

Several persons from the village streets
were now running toward the little candy and
soda water store, and one boy began to
shout :

"Fire! Fire! Fire!"

Quickly the woman turned to him.

"Don't say that, Johnnie Mack!" she ex-
claimed. "It isn't a fire at all, and I don't

64 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

want a lot of engines and hose cai ts coming
and mussing my place up !"

"If it isn't a fire, then what is it?" asked
Captain Ben. "Though it does look more like
steam than smoke," he added, as he glanced
at the white cloud still coming from the door-
way of the store.

"What is it? What's the matter? What
happened?" were some of the questions asked
of the woman.

"I don't know what it is! I can't exactly
tell, but it's something dreadful !" she said to
Captain Ben, who, with Daddy Bunker, was
about to enter the place. "All I know is that
I was drawing a glass of soda water for a little
girl when, all of a sudden, there was a big
noise down in the cellar and then a lot of steam
shot up into my store. I ran out, and the little
girl ran out, and that's all I know about it."

"I think I know what it is," said Captain
Ben. "There isn't any fire and there's nothing
serious. One of the soda water tanks in the
cellar has sprung a leak and the water is shoot-
ing out in a fine spray. It is just as if you left
one of the faucets of your soda fountain open,"
he went on.

THE STORM 65

"Dear me ! All my nice soda water running
to waste!" exclaimed the woman. "But I'm
glad it isn't a fire."

"Won't there be any soda water left for us
to drink?" asked Vi.

"There won't unless I shut it off pretty
soon!" said Captain Ben. "How do you get
down into your cellar?" he asked the candy
store woman. "I'm afraid I can't see my way
to go in through the front door," he added, as
he looked at the cloud of fizzy spray which
almost hid the little store from sight.

"You can get down the outside cellar stairs,"
she answered. "I'll show you."

While the crowd and the four little Bunkers
looked on, Captain Ben went down the outside
stairs to the cellar in which stood the tanks of
soda water. The tanks were filled with a gas
which makes the bubbles in soda water.

The soldier-sailor knew just what to do,
and in a little while the hissing sound stopped,
the clouds of watery spray blew away, and it
was possible to enter the store.

Not much damage had been done, for, after
all, it was only a fine spray of water that had
floated about, and it was such a fine spray that

66 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

it was almost like steam. The crowd swarmed
about, looked in, and, seeing nothing to wonder
at, passed on.

"I'm ever so much obliged to you, sir," said
the candy store woman to Captain Ben. "For
a time I thought my place was going to be
blown up. I'm glad it wasn't, for I have to
make my living by my little store."

"Have you any soda water left?" inquired
Vi, who, with the other little Bunkers, had
got out of the automobile when the crowd
melted away.

"Yes, I have some in bottles. I don't sup-
pose I could draw any from the fountain, could
I ?" she asked Captain Ben.

"Not very well until the broken pipe is
mended," he answered.

"Bottled soda is all right," declared Russ.
"We can drink it from straws if you have
any," he added.

"Yes, I have some," the store woman said,
and soon the four little Bunkers were sitting
on stools in front of the counter, sucking soda
water through straws out of bottles. Captain
Ben insisted on using a straw also, but Daddy
Bunker drank his from a glass.

THE STORM 67

"My, that tastes good!" said Captain Ben,
as he drained the last of his sweet drink.
"Many a time, in the army in France, I'd have
walked ten miles to get a cool drink like that."

"The soda from the fountain is better," the
woman said. "But I guess I won't have any
of that to-day. I'll telephone for some one to
come and mend the broken pipe."

"Can't I go down and see where it broke?"
asked Laddie, when it was time for the little
Bunkers to travel again. "I want to see it."

"There wouldn't be much to look at," Cap-
tain Ben told him. "It would only be a hole
in a pipe, just as there might be a hole in the
water pipe at home if it burst."

"Our water pipe did burst once," said Vi,
"and I got awful nice and wet, and it was a
hot day, too."

"That was lucky!" laughed Captain Ben.

"If I could see this broken pipe maybe I could
make up a riddle about it," went on Laddie.
"I didn't make up a riddle in a long, long time.
And if I don't make up one pretty soon I'll have
to ask the old ones over again."

"I'll tell you some new riddles when I get
a chance," promised Captain Ben. "It's dark

68 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

down in the cellar, and you couldn't see any-
thing much anyhow. Besides, we don't want
to be late getting to Grand View, or your
mother, with Margy and Mun Bun, will be
there ahead of us. I'm not so sure, after all,
but what they'll be there first anyhow," he said
to Daddy Bunker. "It is later than I thought."

"Then we must hurry," said the children's
father. "I wouldn't like Amy and the two chil-
dren to be there alone after dark."

"They'll be safe enough," declared Captain
Ben. "The key to my bungalow is at the house
next door, and Cousin Amy can go in and make
herself and Mun Bun and Margy perfectly at
home in case they get there first. But we'll
try to arrive ahead of them. I'll make the
auto go a little faster."

"Doesn't it seem funny not io have Mun Bun
and Margy with us on this trip?" asked Rose,
as they all prepared to get into the automobile
again.

"Indeed it does," said her father. "But you
six little Bunkers will soon all be together
again."

"Pile in !" called Captain Ben, and he helped
Vi up into the seat to which Russ had already

THE STORM 69

assisted Rose. Laddie was just going to enter
the car when he suddenly turned back and hur-
ried toward the store.

"What's the matter now?" his father called
after him. "Are you still going to look for
the hole in the pipe where the soda water came
out?"

"Maybe he left one of his riddles in there,"
suggested Captain Ben, with a laugh.

A moment later they saw what it was Laddie
had gone back after — it was a little bag of
cookies he had asked Rose to buy for him. He
had laid them on the counter when he was
drinking his soda water through a straw stuck
in the bottle, and he did not intend to leave his
lunch behind.

"Give me some!" begged Violet, when she
saw what her brother had in his hand.

"I'll give us all some," he promised gen-
erously.

"All aboard, then!" called Captain Ben, and
once more they were on their way toward
Grand View. They stopped for lunch at a
hotel in a small town, and the children were
delighted at this. They always liked a change,
no matter what it was.

70 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"And we never had a summer like this," said
Rose. "Two different vacation trips — one to
Uncle Fred's and the other to Captain Ben's."

"We aren't at Captain Ben's yet," said Rose,
as they started off again after their lunch.

"But we shall be pretty soon, sha'n't we,
Daddy?" asked Rose.

"I don't know just how much farther it is,"
was the answer. "What do you say?" he
asked, turning to the soldier-sailor.

The latter did not reply for a moment, and
then he looked up at the sky, studied the clouds
for a moment before he said :

"I don't want to look on the dark side, but
I'm very much afraid we are going to be later
getting. to Grand View than I thought."

"Why?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"Because I think we are going to run into
a storm, and that will delay us," said Captain
Ben. "The roads are none too good, and with
a heavy rain, such as it seems likely we'll have,
we can't make very fast time."

"I just love to be in a rain in an auto when
the side curtains are up, don't you?" asked
Rose of Russ.

"I do if they don't leak," he answered.

THE STORM 71

"It's just like playing house in our attic,"
said Vi. "When do you think it will rain, Cap-
tain Ben?" she went on.

"Very soon, I'm sorry to say," he replied.

The sun went behind the clouds, and the
afternoon changed from a bright, smiling one
to a dark, frowning one. Then the wind began
to blow, and in the west, behind some dark
clouds, flashes of lightning could be seen.

Captain Ben made the automobile go as fast
as was safe, hoping they might reach some
place of shelter before the storm broke. It was
not possible to get to his bungalow, as they
were too far away.

Suddenly the machine began to slow up, just
after a loud clap of thunder which followed a
bright flash of lightning.

"What's the matter ?" exclaimed Rose. "Did
it strike us ?"

"Pooh! Of course not!" exclaimed Russ.
"If we'd been hit you'd know it!"

"No, there is no danger yet," answered Cap-
tain Ben. "But I think we'd better stop and
put up the side curtains before it rains, as it
is going to soon, and rain hard," he said to
Daddy Bunker.

72 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

The automobile was run beneath a tree at
the edge of the road, and the two men began
fastening up the side curtains. Hardly had
they finished and climbed back into the ma-
chine, than there was a louder howl to the wind,
the thunder rolled and crashed overhead, the
lightning blazed in the black sky, and then the
rain came down with pelting force, pattering
on the top and sides of the automobile as it
did on the shingle roof at the home of the six
little Bunkers.

CHAPTER VIII

A QUEER NIGHT

"Isn't this fun !" shouted Rose, leaning back
in the seat and putting her arm around Violet.
"It's just like camping out."

"It's better'n camping out," declared Russ,
who sat next to Laddie. The two smaller chil-
dren were on the back seat of the automobile
between Russ and his sister.

"What makes this better'n camping out?"
Violet wanted to know. "Is it 'cause it rains
harder?"

"No," Russ answered, "it's because we're
under better shelter than we would be in a
tent, camping out in the rain. No water can
get through this auto top."

"Yes it can, too !" cried Laddie. "I just felt
a drop on my nose."

"Oh, that just leaked in around the side cur-

73

74 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

tains," declared Russ, with a laugh. "We'll
not get wet; shall we, Captain Ben?"

"I hope not," was the marine's answer, as
he got ready to drive the car through the storm.
He and Daddy Bunker were on the front seat,
with the glass wind shield in front of them,
and curtains at the sides, as there were at the
back and at the sides near the seat where the
children sat.

"You'll have to drive slowly," said Mr.
Bunker in a low voice to Captain Ben.

"Yes, we can't make any speed," said the
sailor. "The roads are mud puddles already."

Indeed it had rained so hard that in a very
short time it seemed as though the automobile
was going along through a small brook in-
stead of along a country road. It was very
dark, though it was only the middle of the
afternoon. But by the lightning flashes, which
came every now and then, the four little
Bunkers, looking out through the celluloid win-
dows in the side curtains, could see the streams
of muddy water rushing along in the middle
and on either edge of the country road along
which they were traveling.

The thunder, too, boomed out every now

A QUEER NIGHT 75

and then, a sound at which Laddie and Vi
would jump in startled surprise and nestle
closer to Russ and Rose. The smaller chil-
dren were not exactly afraid, but they could
not help jumping at the loud sound made by the
claps of thunder.

Uncle Ben had to drive the car more and
more slowly, for it was slippery on the muddy
roads, and he did not want an accident.
Finally, after he had to come almost to a stand-
still where a brook had overflowed the road,
Russ and Rose heard their father talking to
the soldier-sailor.

"Do you think it is safe to go on?" asked
Mr. Bunker.

"No, I can't say that I do," answered Cap-
tain Ben. "I think we shall never be able to
get to Grand View to-night."

"That's too bad," went on Daddy Bunker.
"I'm not worrying about Amy and Mun Bun
and Margy," he added. "They will be all right
in your bungalow. But what are we going
to do?"

"Well, we shall have to put up somewhere
over night," answered Captain Ben.

"Oh, are we going to stay at a hotel ?" asked

76 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Rose. "I like hotels; don't you, Russ?" she
asked her brother.

"Sometimes I do, when they have good
things to eat," he answered, but his last words
were almost lost in a crash of thunder. When
the echoes of that had quieted down, Captain
Ben said:

"I don't believe there is a hotel within ten
miles of us, and we certainly can not travel
that much farther in this storm."

"Then what are we going to do?" asked
Daddy Bunker.

"Can't we stay in the auto all night ?" asked
Russ. "We have some blankets and things in
our satchels."

"I'm afraid none of you would sleep much,"
said Captain Ben, as he slowed the machine to
pass a bad spot in the road. "No, what we
shall have to do," he added, "will be to stop at
the first house we come to and ask them if they
can take us in for the night. Some farmer
may be kind enough to let us stay in his barn,
if there isn't room in the house, but I gues3
they can manage, even if they have to make
beds on the floor."

"I like to sleep on the floor!" spoke up

A QUEER NIGHT 77

Laddie. "It doesn't hurt then if you fall out."

"No, it doesn't," agreed his father, with a
laugh, and just then Rose looked ahead and
exclaimed :

"There's a house! Maybe we can stop
there!"

A lull had occurred in the storm, and
through the mist and driving rain she pointed
to a large, white house at the side of the road.

"I'll try that," said Captain Ben, and he
steered the automobile up the drive. He got
out, ran up the steps and knocked on the door.
A pleasant-faced woman answered. What was
said the four little Bunkers could not hear, but
presently Captain Ben came running back.

"They will let us all stay here over night,"
he said. "They are very kind, and we shall be
most comfortable. Hurry up on the porch,
children, before it starts to pour again."

Hardly had Rose and Russ, Vi and Laddie
got under the shelter of the broad porch of
the farmhouse than it began to rain harder
than ever. But the children did not mind now,
for they were soon to be in better shelter than
even the curtained automobile gave.

The farmer, who seemed as pleasant as his

78 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

wife, came out to show Captain Ben where
to put the automobile in the wagon house, and
soon the party was safe and snug in the com-
fortable house, while the storm raged out-
side.

"Now if we only had mother and Margy and
Mun Bun here, we'd be all right," observed
Rose.

"What's that? Are there any more of
you?" asked the farmer, with a hearty laugh
as he looked at the visitors. "One, two, three,
four!" he counted the children. "Are there
any more ?"

"Oh, yes," answered Rose, also laughing.
"There are six of us little Bunkers. Margy
and Mun Bun are with my mother."

"Well, well ! Six little Bunkers !" exclaimed
the farmer. "And I have four of 'em ! Wish
I had all six to visit me!" he added. "I like
children," he continued, turning to Captain
Ben and Daddy Bunker. "I have none of my
own, but my sister is visiting me, and she has
three. Hear 'em?" he asked, holding up his
hand for silence.

As the four little Bunkers and the others
listened during a lull in the storm, there came

A QUEER NIGHT 79

from upstairs the sound of merry laughter and
shouting.

"The harder it rains and thunders the
harder they play and laugh," said Mr. White,
as the farmer said his name was. "I'll bring
my sister's three youngsters down and let 'em
play with your four. Then there'll be some
little Bunkers and little brooks," he went on.
"My sister's name is River, and I call the chil-
dren little brooks," he added, with another
laugh.

"Oh, that's almost like a riddle!" declared
Laddie.

"Oh, ho! So you know riddles, do you?"
asked the farmer.

Just then there was a loud noise out in the
hall, and down the stairs came trooping the
three little "brooks," as Mr. White called his
sister's children. They soon made friends with
the four little Bunkers, and then the storm was
forgotten.

But it still rained hard, and the automobile
could not have traveled in it, so it was a good
thing they all stayed at the comfortable farm-
house. Mr. White said he had plenty of room
for them all to sleep, even if his sister was visit-

•0 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

ing them, and Russ was rather disappointed
that he was not permitted to sleep out in the
haymow.

"I wish I could get word to my wife that we
will not be along until to-morrow," said Daddy
Bunker, when it was certain they would have
to- stay all night.

"You can send her a telegram," suggested
Mr. White.

So a telegram was telephoned to the nearest
telegraph office, being sent to Mrs. Bunker,
who, by this time, had reached Grand View.
Then the Bunkers settled down to stay for the
night. First, however, they were given sup-
per, and such fun as the seven children had!
They laughed and talked, and Laddie told all
the riddles he knew.

Tom, Jack and Bess, the three little
"brooks," were jolly children about the same
age as the four little Bunkers, and Tom, the
oldest boy, and Russ were soon fast friends,
while Jack and Bess, who were nearer the age
of Laddie and Vi, went off in a corner of the
big living room after the meal and played
games.

At night Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben

A QUEER NIGHT 81

had one room, while Vi went in with Rose and
Laddie slept with Russ.

The children were tired, and went to bed
early. Just what time it was Rose did not
know, but she was suddenly awakened by feel-
ing a little hand on her face, and a voice said
in her ear :

"I want to come in with you !"

"Is that you, Margy?" Rose asked, half
asleep. She thought for a moment that she
was back at home, and that Margy had come
to "bunk in," as she often did.

"No, I'm not Margy," was the answer. "I'm
Bess. An' I can't sleep with Tack 'cause he
fumbles so." I think Bess meant tumbles, but
she said "fumbles."

"Oh, you're one of the little brooks, aren't
you?" asked Rose, more wide awake now.

"I'm Bess," was the answer, "an' I want to
come in with you !"

Rose hardly knew what to do. There was
scarcely room in the bed where she and Vi
were sleeping, but this strange little girl in-
sisted on climbing up.

Rose was thinking perhaps she had better
call her father or Captain Ben and ask one of

82 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

them what to do, when, from the room across
the hall where Russ and Laddie had a bed,
came a cry from the little riddle-asking chap.

"Here ! Quit that !" cried Laddie. "Let me
alone ! Stop pulling me out of bed !"

"Gracious, what a queer night!" thought
Rose, as she sat up in bed. The storm had
ended and it was very quiet except for the
shouts of Laddie. He kept on calling:

"Let me alone ! Oh, there you go f Now I'm
out of bed!"

There was a thud, and the whole house
seemed to shake.

CHAPTER IX

IN THE DITCH

Rose jumped out of bed, brushing aside the
little River girl who had stolen so silently into
her room, and hurried out into the hall, where
a night light burned. As she hastened out,
Rose gave a hasty glance at Violet. Her little
sister had not awakened.

There was a patter of bare feet behind Rose,
and she knew that Bess was following. As she
went after Rose into the hall Bess exclaimed :

"Oh, there he goes ! There he goes ! He's
gone and done it again !"

At the same time there was a confusion of
voices in several rooms, and some one called:

"Never mind, Jack. Mother's coming!"

This was just what Rose had often heard
her mother say when there had been some
scare in the night among the six little Bunkers.

"He's gone and done it again!" cried Bess,

83

84 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

and she now clung to Rose's nightgown. Then
from the room whence the thud of the fall
had come, sounded another voice crying :

"I didn't mean to !"

"Well, this is getting more and more queer
all the while !" thought Rose, rubbing her eyes
to make herself more widely awake. "First it
was Laddie who was calling about being pulled
out of bed, but that wasn't Laddie who spoke
last, nor Russ."

A moment later Russ appeared, coming from
the room where he had been sleeping with his
small brother Laddie. There was a strange
look on Russ' face. As Rose looked at him she
saw the little figure of Jack come out of the
room behind Russ, even as Bess had followed
her out of her room. And then came Laddie,
making a procession of three little pajama-clad
small boys.

At the other end of the hall Daddy Bunker
appeared in his dressing gown, and then came
Mrs. River and Mr. White.

"What's the matter?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"I don't know," Rose answered. "But this
little girl — Bess — came into my room and woke
me up. I didn't know what to do, and then I

IN THE DITCH 85

heard Laddie call about being pulled out of
bed, and "

"And I was pulled out of bed, too !" Laddie
interrupted. "Somebody came into my room
in the night and pulled all the covers off me,
and then he pulled me, and it wasn't Russ,
either!" he added.

"No, it was him!" and Bess pointed an ac-
cusing finger at her small brother Jack. "He
did it again, Uncle Ned," she added, looking
toward Mr. White.

"Dear me ! what is it all about ?" asked Cap-
tain Ben, now appearing. "I don't quite un-
derstand."

"I think I can explain," said Mrs. River,
who had slipped on a dressing gown and slip-
pers. "Jack walked in his sleep again, didn't
he, Bess?"

"Yes, Mother, he did. He got awful
scrambly when I was sleeping with him, and I
thought he was going to kick me out of bed,
as he does lots of times, so I got out first."

"You did?" exclaimed her mother. "And
where did you go ?"

"In with her," answered Bess, pointing to
Rose.

86 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Then Jack must have got up a little later
and pulled this little boy out of bed," said Mrs.
River. "I hope he didn't hurt you," and she
patted Laddie on the head.

"Oh, no'm. I fell on a pile of bedclothes,"
he answered. "But it felt funny at first."

Jack, the innocent cause of all the trouble,
stood scratching his back, or rather, trying to
reach an itchy place in the very center. But
his arms were not long enough.

"ril scratch it for you," offered Laddie, and
he did, amid the laughter of the grown folk.

"Is that all that happened?" asked Daddy
Bunker, when quiet was restored.

"Yes," was the answer from Russ. "First
I knew I heard Laddie yelling, and then he
rolled out of bed."

"I didn't roll— I was pulled. He pulled me !"
said Laddie, pointing to the poor little "brook"
boy.

"I — I didn't mean to," said the poor little cul-
prit. "I didn't know what I was doing. I
didn't even know I got out of my bed."

"I think, when you get back in, I'll have to
tie you with a piece of clothesline," his mother
said. "He has often walked in his sleep be-

IN THE DITCH 87

fore," she explained; "but I never knew him to
pull any one out of bed until now."

The excitement was soon over, and the chil-
dren went back to their beds and to sleep. Mrs.
River took Jack in with her, and Bess was
allowed to sleep with Rose and Violet, much to
the delight of Bess. Violet never awakened
through all these happenings, nor did Tom, the
oldest River boy.

The sun was shining when the four little
Bunkers came down to breakfast the next
morning, and they laughed with the little
"brooks" at the memory of what had happened
in the night.

"As soon as I heard that big bang I knew
what had happened," said Bess. "I knew Jack
had gone and done it again, but I didn't know
who it was he had pulled out of bed."

Breakfast over, the four little Bunkers, with
Captain Ben and their father, got ready to re-
sume their trip to Grand View. They still had
many miles to go, but they thought they could
make it by night, even though the roads were
bad.

"And they are pretty sure to be in poor con-
dition," said Captain Ben, as he brought the

88 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

automobile around to the side porch. "We
shall have to drive slowly on account of so
much slippery mud after the rain."

Mr. White would not accept any money for
having taken care of the travelers over night,
and after thanking him and saying good-bye to
the little "brooks," promising to come and visit
them some time, the Bunkers started off once
more.

"We'll have lots to tell mother when we see
her," said Rose as she settled herself in the
rear seat of the car.

"I should say so!" exclaimed Russ. "It
surely was funny to wake up and hear Laddie
yelling, and then to hear him fall out of bed !"

"And I didn't know what to think when I
felt Bess touch me," remarked Rose. "At first
I thought it was Margy."

"I guess Margy and Mun Bun are playing
near the ocean now," said Vi. "I wish we
were."

"You'll soon be with them," promised Cap-
tain Ben.

"And I'm going to try to think up a riddle
about falling out of bed," said Laddie.

Though the sun shone and the weather was

IN THE DITCH 89

fine now, there were traces of the night's storm
on every side. In some places there were
brooks still running high with water, and in
one or two sections the road bed had been
washed away, so that Captain Ben had to drive
slowly and carefully.

They had just left a small village, after a
stop to get something to eat and to let the chil-
dren have soda water, when they passed a man
driving an empty farm wagon.

"You folks want to watch out just the other
side of the white bridge," this man called to
Captain Ben.

"What's the matter?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"There's a bad piece of road just after you
cross the white bridge," was the answer. "It's
clay, and clay is slippery when it's wet. Watch
out!"

"We will," promised Captain Ben, and he
drove slowly along. They soon came in sight
of the white bridge. It went over a canal,
and there was a hill on either side of the bridge,
which was raised high over the canal to allow
boats to pass under it.

"I should say it was a bad, slippery road!"
said Captain Ben, as the machine started down

90 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

the slope after crossing the bridge. "I'll just
have to crawl."

He shut off all power and put on the brakes.
For a little way the car went down well, and
it seemed as if nothing would happen. Then,
suddenly, the wheels slipped in the slimy clay
and Daddy Bunker shouted:

"Look out!"

But, even as he spoke, the automobile slid to
one side, and the next moment there was a
crash and the four little Bunkers and their
father and Captain Ben were almost standing
on their heads inside the automobile, which
slid into a deep ditch partly filled with water
at the side of the road.

CHAPTER X

THE BAD RAM

There was silence for a moment, following
the crash of the big touring car in the ditch,
and then Violet piped up in her shrill voice ask-
ing, as of course you have guessed, a question.

"What happened?" demanded Violet, and
then, as Captain Ben looked back and saw that
all four little Bunkers were safe in the rear
seat, though somewhat mixed up, and as he
saw Daddy Bunker straightening up after hav-
ing slid from the front seat, Captain Ben
laughed.

"I guess more things happened than we'll
know about right away," answered the marine.
"Are any of you hurt?"

"I — I guess my nose got bumped," said
Laddie. "It feels so, anyhow."

"You ought to know whether or not you
bumped it," his father said.

91

92 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"I didn't bump it — my nose bumped itself
on the back of your seat," explained Laddie.
"Anyhow, I don't guess it's bloodin', is it?" he
went on, holding his hand to his nose. "Blood-
in' " was Laddie's word for bleeding.

"No, it isn't bloodin' any," Vi told her
brother. "But, oh, wasn't it funny the way we
slid into the ditch?"

"I'm glad it is no worse than funny," said
Captain Ben. "I felt the car sliding on the
slippery road, but the brakes would not hold
her back. I'm afraid something is broken, but
I'm glad none of our bones are."

"Lessen Laddie's nose is," put in Vi.

By this time Daddy Bunker and the chil-
dren had climbed down from the car. They
could see now what had happened. It had
slid almost head first into the roadside ditch,
which was partly filled with muddy water from
the last night's rain. The radiator, or that
part of the automobile which is kept filled with
water to cool the engine, was thrust into the
muddy bank on the far side of the ditch. One
of the front wheels was broken, and, in addi-
tion, the car was tilted on one side. If it had
not been for the edges of the ditch holding the

THE BAD RAM 93

car up, it would have turned right over on its
side.

"Oh, the wheel is broken !" exclaimed Rose,
as she looked at the splintered spokes.

"And we can't go on to Grand View and see
mother !" added Vi.

"Shall we have to stay here all night?''
Laddie asked. "If we do, we'd better get a
tent, 'cause it won't be any fun sleeping in the
automobile like that."

"No, it will not," said Captain Ben, as he
walked around the car and looked at it from
all sides to see the worst of the damage. "But
we won't stay here all night. If we can't go
on in this machine, we'll get another."

"I don't see how you can go on in this when
a wheel is smashed," said Daddy Bunker.

"I have an extra wheel," Captain Ben said.
"If that is the worst of the damage we can
get over that, provided we can get pulled out
of the ditch. That's the first thing to be done
— get pulled out of the ditch. But it looks as
though we should not get to Grand View even
to-night, and I don't know what Cousin Amy
will think of me for keeping her four little
Bunkers away from her two nights in succes-

94 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

sion, not to say anything about her big
Bunker," and as he said this Captain Ben
looked at the children's father.

"Yes, I fear Amy will be missing us," said
Mr. Bunker. "But we don't want to desert
you, Captain Ben. If I had some way of talk-
ing to Amy and telling her just what has hap-
pened, letting her know the children are safe,
I'm sure she wouldn't mind if we stayed on
the road another night — that is if we have to."

"I'm almost sure we'll have to," said Cap-
tain Ben. "I am very sorry, but I seem to have
brought you nothing but bad luck ever since I
came. When I arrived your chimney was on
fire. Then almost as soon as we start out we
run into a storm and have to stay all night.
We can't even have a peaceful night, for Jack
made Laddie fall out of bed and there were
all kinds of excitement."

"That was only fun!" laughed Rose.

"It sure was," agreed Russ. "And maybe
this will be fun, too. That is, if mother doesn't
worry, and we can get the car out of the ditch,"
he added.

"Oh, we can get the car out of the ditch,
sooner or later," Captain Ben remarked. "And

THE BAD RAM 95

I fancy we can get word to your mother — per-
haps on the telephone. We'll try, anyhow."

As he spoke he thrust out his left arm and
glanced down at his wrist.

"Ha ! I forgot about my watch being gone,"
he exclaimed. "I'm so in the habit of looking
at it that I forget it isn't on my wrist any
more."

"Didn't you find your watch?" asked Daddy
Bunker.

"No, it was lost in the excitement of pack-
ing, and I haven't seen it since," the soldier-
marine answered. "I'd give a good reward to
get it back, too, for I prize it very much be-
cause it was the gift of a Frenchman. But I
don't suppose I'll ever find it."

"You may," said Daddy Bunker hopefully.
"As soon as we get to your bungalow at Grand
View I'll write back and ask Jerry Simms or
Norah if they have found it. They may have
picked it up after we left."

"Yes, they might," agreed Captain Ben.
"And I'll give five dollars as a reward to who-
ever finds my lost watch," he added.

"Does that mean any of us?" asked Russ
eagerly.

96 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Yes, any of the six little Bunkers," an-
swered Captain Ben. "Or either of the two
big Bunkers, which means daddy or mother,"
he added. "But we won't worry about my lost
watch now. The main things to do are to get
our auto out of the ditch and to let Mother
Bunker know that we are all right and that
we'll not be at Grand View to-night, unless you
folks go on in the train and let me come later
in the machine after I get it fixed."

"No, we'll stay with you," said Daddy
Bunker. "We won't desert the ship, as the
sailors would say. Of course I suppose I could
send the children on and stay with you my-
self," he remarked.

"Oh, no ! Please let us stay !" begged Russ.
"It's lots of fun being wrecked in an auto."

"I like it, too," said Laddie. "And maybe I
can think of a funny riddle about going in the
ditch to tell mother."

"All right ; then we'll stay with Captain Ben
and help get the machine out of the ditch,"
said Daddy Bunker. "After it is on level
ground we can try to put on the extra wheel,
and perhaps then we can travel and get to
Grand View rather late to-night."

THE BAD RAM 97

"I hope so," said Captain Ben. "If we could
get some fence rails, perhaps we could raise the
auto out of the ditch ourselves. I used to do
such things in France during the war."

"There's lots of fences around here," ob-
served Russ.

This was true enough. The auto had gone
into the ditch near the canal, and it was in a
part of the country where there were many
fields, bordered by rail fences. A long fence
rail makes a very good lever, or lifter, for an
auto, Captain Ben explained.

While the four little Bunkers wandered
along the roadside, gathering flowers and toss-
ing stones into a little brook, Captain Ben and
Daddy Bunker took some rails from the fence.
They intended to put them back when they had
finished using them. With stones they built up
a sort of pile, or pyramid, on which to rest
part of the rail, while one end of it was shoved
under the wheel that was deepest in the mud of
the ditch. Then the two men pressed down
on the other end of the rail.

Russ, who did not care much about picking
flowers, came back to watch his father and the
captain. Russ wanted to help, but he knew

98 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

this was no time to ask, so he sat on the grassy
bank whistling softly, and making a little boat
out of a piece of wood.

"I think we'll have to get help," said Cap-
tain Ben, as he straightened up after he and
Daddy Bunker had pressed down heavily on
the long end of the rail. "The two of us to-
gether are not strong enough to raise the car
out of the ditch."

"Maybe I could help !" offered Russ eagerly.

"Not just yet," his father said, with a laugh.
"Though a little later on we may call on you.
I wonder if there is a place around here where
we could get a couple of farmers to give us a
hand," he went on.

"Here comes a canal boat," said Russ, look-
ing down the still, quiet stream of water which
was not like a brook or a river. The water in
the canal did not run, but remained as still as
the water in a bath tub.

"It's a nice canal boat," went on Russ, "and
it's got some mules pulling it, and a man is
driving the mules. Maybe he'd lend us his
mules to help pull the auto out of the ditch."

"Maybe he would," agreed Mr. Bunker.
"We'll ask him. But first let's put the fence

THE BAD RAM 99

rail back under the wheel so when the canal
boat man comes along we may show him what
we want to do."

As Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben leaned
over to put the fence rail in place, Russ turned
from looking at the canal boat to glance over
the field near the half overturned auto. And
the boy caught sight of something that made
him cry:

"Oh, look out ! Look out ! Here he comes !"

"Who's coming?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"If it's a farmer who is going to find fault be-
cause we borrowed his fence rails, we can offer
to pay him."

"Oh, it isn't a farmer!" cried Russ. "It's
worse ! It's a bad ram ! A big, ugly sheep with
horns, and he's going to bunk into Captain
Ben, I guess ! Oh, look out !"

CHAPTER XI

THE APPLE BOY

What Russ had said was perfectly true.
Daddy Bunker looked around just in time to
see a big ram bounding out of the meadow
toward Captain Ben, who was stooping to put
the fence rail under the broken wheel of the
automobile. And it was because of the rails
that had been taken off the fence that the ram
was able to get out of his meadow.

"Oh, look!" screamed Rose, who, with
Laddie and Vi, had come back to the automo-
bile, their hands full of wayside flowers.

"Don't let him bunk into me !" shrieked Vi.

"I'll make him go back ! I'll throw stones at
him!" cried Laddie.

"Indeed you'll not do anything of the sort !"

exclaimed Rose. "Come back here, Laddie

Bunker!" and she caught her little brother by

his jacket and stopped him from running for-

100

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THE BIG RAM RUSHED AT CAPTAIN BEN.
Six Little Bunkers at Captain Ben's Page 101

THE APPLE BOY 101

ward. Laddie had dropped his flowers, and
was going to pick up some stones.

Russ had jumped to his feet and seized a
stick. With that he intended to do as Laddie
had said he was going to — attack the ram.
But as the sheep creature with his long horns
carre nearer, and as Laddie saw what a big,
ugly animal he was, the boy did not feel much
like standing his ground.

By this time Captain Ben, who had not as
yet seen the ram, straightened up.

"What's the matter?" asked the marine.
"Has another accident happened?"

Just as he said this, and before Daddy
Bunker could do as he was going to do, and
thrust a fence rail between the ram's legs to
trip him, the big sheep rushed full at Captain
Ben.

"Baa-a-a-a !" bleated the ram, and with low-
ered head and curved horns, he struck Captain
Ben "amidships," as the marine said after it
was all over.

There was a dull thud, and Captain Ben was
knocked over and down into the same ditch
into which the automobile had nearly turned a
somersault.

192 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Hi, there! Stop that! Go on away!"
yelled Russ, jumping up and down, swinging
his hat in one hand and waving a stick in the
other. "Go on away!"

But the ram paid no attention to the shouts
of the boy, nor to the screams of Rose, Laddie
and Violet in the road a safe distance away.

"Are you hurt, Captain Ben ?" asked Daddy
Bunker, as he caught up a heavy rail and
started toward the ram.

"No, not at all," came the answer from Cap-
tain Ben, who was getting up, after having
been knocked down into the ditch. "Luckily
for me I fell on a lot of soft grass."

"Don't get up or come this way, or this
brute will butt you down again," warned Daddy
Bunker. "I'll see if I can drive him away.
Stay on the other side of the ditch."

"No, I'm coming to help you. The ram may
try to horn some of the children," returned the
soldier-sailor. It was just like Captain Ben
not to run away from a fight, either with some
enemy on the battle field or a savage ram in a
meadow.

Not much hurt by having been knocked head
over heels, Captain Ben caught up a stick, like

THE APPLE BOY 103

Daddy Bunker, and, leaping across the ditch,
started to run toward the ram. The big, woolly
creature stood on a little hill, looking at the
partly overturned automobile, then at the two
men rushing toward him, and then at Russ
and the other children.

"You get back where you belong and let me
work on my auto!" called Captain Ben, as he
raised his fence rail to push the ram away.
"Get back in your own meadow!"

"We can't make him stay there unless we
put back the fence rails, I guess," said Daddy
Bunker. "And we have to use them to get the
auto out of the ditch."

The two men, with the long rails, rushed at
the ram. But he stood his ground, shaking his
head, stamping with his forefeet, and uttering
loud"Baa-a-as!"

Just as Daddy Bunker and Uncle Ben were
going to thrust at the ram, a voice behind them
called :

"Look out, friends! That's a bad animal!
Once he goes on a rampage there's no stopping
him."

The four little Bunkers and their father and
Captain Ben turned to see the canal mule

104 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

driver rushing to their aid with a long whip
in his hand.

"I know old Hector, the ram !" said the mule
driver. "He's butted me more than once, and
he tried to butt one of my mules. But that
time he got the worst of it. Better let him
alone!"

"But we want to drive him away," called
Captain Ben. "He knocked me into the ditch,
and he won't let us get our auto out. We've
got to drive him away."

"Well, then, I'll help you," offered the mule
driver. "Maybe if all three of us go at him
at once we can scare him away."

"Let me help !" begged Russ. "I can throw
stones !"

"No! No!" exclaimed his father. "You
look after Rose and the children. Better climb
back into the auto. He can't get at you there."

Russ started to do as his father had re-
quested, and then the three men rushed at the
ram together. The mule driver cracked his
whip, making sounds like Fourth of July fire-
crackers. Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker
shouted and waved their fence rails. The ram
stood for a moment, poised on top of a little

THE APPLE BOY 105

mound of grass, where he had climbed after
butting Captain Ben.

"Baa-a-a-a !" bleated the big sheep, as
though saying he was not afraid of all of them.

But before Captain Ben or Daddy Bunker
could reach at him with the rails, and before
the mule driver could flick him with the crack-
ing whip, the ram thought better of his idea.
He uttered another loud "Baa-a-a!" and then,
turning, ran back into the field whence he had
come.

"Oh, I'm so glad he's gone!" cried Rose,
who, with the other little Bunkers, had been
about to climb into the tilted automobile.

"He may come back again," said the mule
driver. "He's a bad one, all right, that ram is.
Fve been traveling this canal towpath for five
years, and I know old Hector. Whenever he
gets loose there's trouble."

"I guess we were too much for him this
time," said Daddy Bunker. "I fancy he did
not like the cracking of your whip."

"That's about the only way I can scare him,"
said the mule driver. "I'll keep it handy in
case he comes back."

But Hector, the ram, did not seem to have

106 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

any idea of coming back. He ambled off over
the green meadow, now and then looking back
and uttering a "Baa-a-a!" It was as though
he had decided he had had enough fun for one
day. And he must have laughed to himself,
if rams ever laugh, at the funny manner in
which he had butted Captain Ben head over
heels into the ditch.

"My, but you seem to be in a peck of
trouble," said the mule driver, as he looked at
the automobile in the ditch. "Can I help
any?"

"I was just going to ask you to, when my
little boy called out about the ram," answered
Daddy Bunker. "Do you think you can help
us get the auto on level ground, so we can
put on an extra wheel?"

"I'll do my best," offered the mule driver.
"I saw something was wrong, so I ran over
from the towpath. There's another man on
the boat. I'll call him. I guess the four of
us can manage it. But it will probably take
some time."

"Yes, I think it will," said Daddy Bunker.
"And it is nearly noon, too. Do you know if
there is a hotel around here, or a place where

THE APPLE BOY 107

I can take the children to stay while we are
working on the car?"

"There isn't any hotel," said the mule driver,
"but about a quarter of a mile down the road
is Mr. Brown's place. He has a big farm and
orchard, and he sells meals to auto travelers,
and sometimes keeps them over night."

"That might be just the place for us," said
Daddy Bunker. "We may have to stay all
night again."

"If we do," said Rose, "I hope nobody walks
in his sleep."

"What's she mean?" asked the mule driver.

"That's what happened where we stayed
last night," explained Mr. Bunker. "There
were some other children at the farmhouse,
and one of them walked in his sleep."

"There aren't any children at Mr. Brown's,"
said the mule driver, "and I never heard of
him or his wife walking in their sleep. They
have good meals there, too — roast chicken, hot
biscuits, pie, cake "

"Oh, I'm so hungry !" cried Vi. "Mayn't we
stay there, Daddy?"

"At least we'll go there for dinner," said her
father. "And then, later, we'll decide about

108 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

to-night. Come on, children, I'll take you to
Mr. Brown's country farm hotel, and then I'll
come back to help Captain Ben."

Mr. Brown's place proved to be a sort of
wayside boarding house, where automobile
parties often stopped. He and his wife said
they would look after the children while the
men worked on the automobile. And, if need
be, the party could stay all night.

"The only thing is I must get word to my
wife. I'd like to talk to her on the telephone,"
said Daddy Bunker.

"I have a long distance telephone right in
the house," said Mr. Brown. "You call her up
and see what she says."

This Mr. Bunker did, managing to get his
wife on the telephone in Grand View. He told
her briefly what had happened, and said they
might not be at Captain Ben's bungalow that
night even, on account of the accident.

Mrs. Bunker told her husband not to worry,
as she was all right with Margy and Mun Bun,
though of course lonesome for him and the
other little Bunkers.

"Then we'll remain here to-night if we can't
get the car fixed," said Daddy Bunker to Mr.

THE APPLE BOY 109

Brown. "I'll let the children stay here now,
and Captain Ben and I will come and get our
dinner a little later."

Russ, Rose, Laddie and Vi thought the
Brown homestead was one of the nicest places
they had ever visited. While dinner was being
got ready they sat on the broad porch and told
Mr. Brown some of their adventures so far on
this trip.

"My, you've had a lot happen to you," he
said. "Automcbiling is a risky business I take
it. I'll stick to horses. I remember once I
was in an auto and I "

Mr. Brown stopped suddenly, looked down
toward his orchard and cried :

"There he is again ! That pesky apple boy !
I'll get him this time, and I'll teach him to steal
my fruit ! Hi there, you pesky apple boy !" he
shouted, as he leaped from his chair and started
on a run toward the orchard.

CHAPTER XII

OFFERING HELP

Russ,. Rose, Laddie, and Vi, who had been
sitting in chairs on the porch near Mr. Brown,
listening to him talk about the uncertainties of
an automobile, also jumped up as the boarding-
house keeper cried out and left his seat. Russ
looked in the direction the farmer pointed and
saw, amid the trees in the apple orchard, a boy
about his own size running as fast as he could
run toward a fence. And, as the boy ran,
apples dropped from his pockets to the grass.

"Hi there, stop, you pesky apple-taker of a
boy!" yelled Mr. Brown. "What do you mean
by coming into my orchard and taking my
apples !"

The boy said never a word, but ran all the
faster toward the fence.

"Come on !" called Russ to Rose. "Let's go

and see if he catches him !"

no

OFFERING HELP 111

Laddie and Vi followed their older brother
and sister down off the porch, and ran after
Mr. Brown into the apple orchard, which was
not far from the house.

"What's the matter, children?" cried Mrs.
Brown, coming from her kitchen where she
was getting dinner ready. "Are you running
away?"

"We're going to see Mr. Brown catch the
apple boy," Russ answered back over his
shoulder.

"Is that pesky apple boy here again ?" asked
the farmer's wife.

"What's a pesky apple boy?" asked Laddie,
as he ran along beside Russ. "Is it a riddle?
If it is I wish she or Mr. Brown would tell me
the answer."

"No, 'pesky' is sort of mean, I think," ex-
plained Russ.

"Hi there! Don't you run off with my
apples !" shouted the farmer again, and by this
time the boy had reached the fence. He started
to climb over it, but it was too high, or else he
was too small, and as he wiggled and struggled
many more apples kept dropping from his
pockets. He seemed to have filled his coat and

112 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

trousers pockets pretty full with Mr. Brown's
apples.

"Now I have you !" cried Mr. Brown, as he
rushed up to the boy and pulled him back just
as the little fellow might have gotten over the
fence if he had had a moment more. "Now I
have you! I'll teach you to take my apples!
I warned you if I caught you in my orchard
again I'd have you arrested, and now I'm going
to ! I told you to keep out of my orchard !"

"No, you didn't," answered the boy in a sul-
len voice, as the farmer took hold of his collar
and began to drag him toward the house.

"What makes you say I didn't?" demanded
Mr. Brown, while Russ, Rose, and the others
looked on wonderingly. "Didn't I tell you not
to take any more of my apples?"

"No, you didn't !" exclaimed the boy. "And
I wish you'd let me go ! I never was in your
orchard before, and I never took any of your
apples before, and I wouldn't have taken any
now only I was so hungry I was almost
starved !"

His chin began to tremble, and so did his
lips, and it was easy to see he was almost ready
to cry.

OFFERING HELP 113

Mrs. Brown came down through the orchard
to meet her husband.

"I see you caught him," she said. "We'll
teach him not to take any more of our apples !
Bring him along and send for the constable.
He'll take him to the lockup !"

"Oh, please don't have me arrested!"
begged the boy, who was a little older than
Russ. "I never took any of your apples before,
and I wouldn't have taken any now, only I was
so hungry I couldn't help it. I didn't have any
supper, and I didn't have any breakfast and
I didn't see where I was going to get any din-
ner, and "

"Here, Abner Brown, you let that boy go !"
suddenly exclaimed Mrs. Brown, and there was
a new note in her voice and a different look on
her face. "Poor child ! He's half starved, any-
body can see that ! And I have a good dinner
almost cooked and ready to serve. You come
right along with me, poor child. I'll give you
your dinner with these other children."

"Oh, thank you !" said the boy, as the farmer
let go of him. "Honest, I never took any of
your apples before. I only just got here," he
went on. "I've been walking a long way, and

114 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

when I saw the apples I was so hungry I just
couldn't help taking a few."

"Are you sure you were never in my orchard
before?" asked Mr. Brown.

"Sure!" was the answer. "I never was in
this town before. I don't even know the name
of it."

"Of course this isn't the same boy, Abner,"
went on Mrs. Brown. "A body could see that
with their eyes shut. The other boy, who's
been taking our apples, has red hair. This
boy's is brown. 'Tisn't the same one at all!"

"I'm glad of it," said the farmer. "But I
would like to catch that chap who's been steal-
ing from my orchard. Not that I mind a few
apples. I'd give 'em to him willingly if he'd
come and ask me. But I don't like a pesky
apple thief! Though how you can see even
red hair with your eyes shut, Mother, I don't
know," he added, with a laugh at his wife.

"Never mind about that," she said to her
husband. "He isn't the same boy, and I'm glad
of it. Come on up to the house," she went on.
"I reckon I can give you a better dinner than
just apples, though they're good enough to eat
when you want 'em."

OFFERING HELP 11*

"Thank you," said the boy gratefully. "I'll
do some chores for you to pay for my meal and
the apples I took, if you'll let me," he went on.
"I offered to work for a man last night, to pay
for my supper, but he wouldn't let me, and he
said if I didn't get off his place he'd set his
ugly old ram after me."

"Maybe that's the same ram that butted Cap-
tain Ben!" exclaimed Rose.

"Did that old ram of Hank Yardon's get
loose?" asked Mr. Brown, as he walked back
to the house with the children.

"Yes," answered Russ, and he told what had
happened.

"Well, well!" said the farmer. "It's a good
thing the canal mule driver happened along.
Hector is a bad one!"

"Do you live here?" asked the "apple boy,"
as Rose called him. He put his question to
Russ, beside whom he was walking to the
house.

"No," was the answer. "We're on our way
to Captain Ben's at Grand View and "

"Where'd you say?" interrupted the boy
quickly.

"Captain Ben's," said Rose.

116 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"No, I mean the name of the place."

"Oh! Grand View," went on Russ. "It's
on the seashore, and we're going there for our
second vacation. We had one at Uncle Fred's
ranch in the West, but something went wrong
with the pipes in our school, and we couldn't
go back for a month, so Captain Ben invited
us to Grand View."

"Hum ! Yes. Grand View," murmured the
apple boy, who had said his name was Tad
Munson.

"Do you know where it is?" asked Rose,
while Laddie and Vi ran on ahead, racing to
see who would first reach the front porch of the
farmhouse.

"Yes, I know," was the low-voiced answer.
"And I wish I was there. But I don't see how
I can get there. All my money is gone, and
none of the farmers want any work done that
I can do. But I'm glad I'm going to have
some dinner," he went on. "I can smell it now,
and it makes me hungrier than ever."

"I'm hungry, too," said Russ.

"Are you going around in an automobile?"
asked Vi, coming back after she had beaten
Laddie in a race to the porch.

OFFERING HELP 117

"An automobile? I should say not!" cried
the boy. "I travel on shanks' mules, I do."

"Are they like canal mules?" Vi wanted to
know.

"Not exactly," answered the boy, smiling.
"They're my legs — shanks I call 'em — and I've
walked many a mile on 'em since I — well, for
the last week," he said quickly.

Russ looked at the boy sharply. There
seemed to be something strange about him —
as though he wanted to hide something — to
hide something more than the apples he had
stuffed into his pockets.

"If I could get back anywhere near Grand
View I'd never go away again," said the boy in
a low voice. "I guess I did wrong, but it's too
late now. I wish "

Just then the voice of Mrs. Brown was heard
calling :

"Come to dinner, children!"

"Ah! That sounds good!" murmured Tad
Munson.

Russ, Rose and the others thought the same,
and soon they were sitting down to a bounti-
fully supplied table. As the canal mule driver
had said, there was roast chicken, hot biscuits

118 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

with plenty of gravy, and many other good
things.

"I wish Daddy and Captain Ben could have
some of this," said Rose, as she passed her
plate for a second helping.

"Oh, I'll save plenty for them," said Mrs.
Brown. "I always cook a lot, because auto-
mobile folks are almost always hungrier than
the general run. Are you feeling better ?" she
asked the strange boy who had taken the
apples.

"Oh, I feel a lot better," he said. "I can't
thank you enough, nor tell you how sorry I am
I took your apples," said Tad. "I'll do some
chores to pay for my meal."

"I think we sha'n't worry about that," said
Mr. Brown, with a laugh. "I didn't mean to
collar you quite so roughly, but I've been both-
ered a lot with the pesky apple boys."

"I know a riddle about apples," said Laddie.

"Do you?" asked Mrs. Brown. "What is
it?"

"It's like this," went on Laddie. "Why is
an apple like a wax doll?"

"Why is an apple like a wax doll? I never
heard of such a thing!" laughed the farmer's

OFFERING HELP 119

wife. "An apple isn't any like a wax doll that
I can see."

"Yes it is," said Laddie. "An apple is like
a wax doll 'cause they both have red cheeks.
A wax doll has red cheeks, and an apple has
red cheeks."

"What about a green apple?" asked Mr.
Brown, as the others laughed at Laddie's little
riddle.

"Oh, well, I didn't mean a green apple,"
said the little boy.

Dinner was half over when Daddy Bunker
and Captain Ben came in.

"Did you get the auto out of the ditch?"
asked Russ.

"Yes. But it's more badly broken than I
thought," Captain Ben replied. "It can't be
fixed until to-morrow, so we shall have to stay
here all night. You don't mind as long as your
mother and the other two little Bunkers are
all right, do you?" he asked Russ.

"Oh, no," was the answer. "It's fun here !"

"And there was a pesky apple boy, only he
wasn't the same one 'cause he didn't have red
hair," explained Vi, "and there he is now!"
and she pointed to Tad, whose face got as red

120 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

as the wax doll's cheeks that Laddie told about
in his riddle.

"Oh, another youngster," remarked Captain
Ben. "Are you a stalled autoist, too?"

"No such luck," replied the boy. "I have to
walk when I travel. And I wish I could hurry
and travel right now to Avalon."

"Avalon on the coast?" asked Captain Ben
quickly.

"Yes," answered the boy. "Avalon is where
I want to get to. But I don't see how I'm going
to."

"Avalon is only a little distance from Grand
View, where I have my summer bungalow,"
went on the sailor. "If you'd like to get there
I can take you as far as I'm going. And you
can get a trolley car to Avalon from Grand
View."

"Yes, I know I can," went on the boy. "I'd
be ever so much obliged if you'd take me as
far as Grand View."

"I guess we can do that," promised the cap-
tain. "We'll give you help along the way as
soon as our car is in shape, which won't be
until morning, however."

"I'll wait and ride along with you, if they'll

OFFERING HELP 121

let me sleep here in the barn," said the boy,
with a look at Mr. Brown.

"Oh, shucks! We have plenty of room for
you in the house," said the farmer's wife.
"Stay and welcome!"

"All right, I will, and thank you," the boy
replied.

"And now you men folks had better sit up
and get your dinner," went on Mrs. Brown.
"Getting autos out of ditches is hungry work."

"Indeed it is !" agreed Captain Ben.

He and Daddy Bunker had almost finished
their pie, which was the last course of the meal,
when a man came rushing up the front path.

"Say, whoever owns that auto that's stuck
in the ditch had better hurry back there !" the
man called. "Something's the matter! I can
hear a lot of yelling around the bend in the
road!"

Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben hurried
from the table.

"Goodness! what's going to happen now?"
said Rose to Russ.

CHAPTER XIII

THE MISSING BOY

The four little Bunkers had finished their
dinner before their father and Captain Ben
had started to eat. Tad Munson, the "apple
boy," had also completed his meal, and as the
man came running in from the road, calling
out that something was wrong down where
the automobile had been left, Russ, Rose, Vi
and Laddie, together with Tad, started after
Mr. Bunker and Captain Ben.

"What you s'pose it is?" asked Vi, as she
pattered along with her twin brother, holding
his hand.

"I don't know," answered Russ, who was
running with Rose. "This is no time to ask a
lot of questions, Vi."

"I didn't ask a lot. I asked only one," re-
torted the little girl. "And I think you might

answer that."

122

THE MISSING BOY 123

"I would if I knew the answer," said Russ,
smiling a little ; "but I don't. We'll run along
and see what's happening."

"Maybe somebody is trying to take the
auto," suggested Tad, who had made good
friends with the four little Bunkers.

"I guess they couldn't take Captain Ben's
car unless they put on a new wheel and did a
lot of other things," said Russ. "It was pretty
badly smashed and they couldn't have fixed it
so soon."

"No, I guess not," agreed Tad. "Anyhow,
something's happening."

This was true enough. As the children ran
out of the gate and down the road after the
man who had given the alarm, their father,
and Captain Ben, they could hear through the
quiet, still country air a loud shouting around
the bend in the road where the auto was in
the ditch, about a quarter of a mile away.

As the little Bunkers and the others hurried
away from his house Mr. Brown was heard to
say:

"I knew it! You can't tell me autos are
safe! Something's always happening to 'em!
Give me a horse every time !"

124 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

A little later Russ, Rose and the others came
within sight of the place where Captain Ben's
car had gone into the ditch. The children saw
their father and Captain Ben approaching a
crowd of men, who surrounded the car.

"What'd I tell you?" cried Tad. "Some
thieves are trying to take your auto!"

"It does look so," agreed Russ, for certainly
there was quite a throng about the machine,
and all the men seemed much excited.

Suddenly, however, the crowd about the
stalled car parted, and out from among them
ran a mule, who brayed loudly and kicked up
his heels as though he were having a good
time.

"Oh, look! Look!" cried Vi. "Look at the
funny mule!"

"He's a circus mule!" added Laddie. "See
him kick up his heels ! I could think of a funny
riddle about him if I had time!"

"What do you s'pose is the matter?" asked
Rose. "Were they trying to make the mule
do some tricks, Russ?"

"I guess the mule did tricks without any
making," her brother answered. "Oh, look
at him kick up his heels !"

THE MISSING BOY 126

Indeed the canal animal was flying around
in a circle, every now and then rising up on
his forefeet and letting fly with his hind ones,
and the men took good care to keep out of his
way.

Then, with a loud bray, the mule started
over toward the canal bank, and one of the
men followed him, shouting to the animal to
stop.

By this time Russ and the other children
had reached the place of excitement. They
saw their father and Captain Ben laughing,
and then they knew nothing serious had hap-
pened.

"What was it? What made the mule kick
up so funny? Was he a circus mule, and did
he run back to the circus?" asked Vi, getting
in all the questions possible in as short a time
as she could.

"No, he wasn't exactly a circus mule, but he
acted like one," her father answered. "Did
any of you get kicked ?" he inquired of the men
around the automobile.

"No; but I come pretty near on to it," an-
swered one of them. "He sure was a high per-
former."

126 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"What happened?" asked Russ of Captain
Ben.

"Yes, tell us," murmured Rose.

"As nearly as I can find out," said Captain
Ben, "when your father and I went to dinner,
after getting the auto as far out of the ditch
as we could, some of the men from the canal
decided they would hitch one of their mules to
the car and see if he could pull it out. Mules
are very strong, you know."

"Are they strong kickers, too?" asked
Laddie.

"Indeed they are, very strong," Captain
Ben answered. "Well, as I said, while we
were down at Mrs. Brown's, getting our din-
ner, the men tried to hitch the mule to the auto
that was still partly in the ditch. But the mule
didn't like the work, for he began to kick out,
and finally he broke loose and did as he
pleased.

"That's the racket I heard as I was coming
along the road," said the man who had run to
Mr. Brown's to give the alarm. "I heard a
mule braying and men shouting, and a boy told
me about the auto accident a little while before.
This boy said the man who owned the car was

THE MISSING BOY 127

at Brown's boarding house, so I ran there to
tell you."

"I'm glad you did," said Daddy Bunker.
"I'm sorry there was so much trouble, but I'm
glad no one was hurt. I guess we can't depend
on a mule for hauling our car out of the ditch."

"I guess not," said the canal boat man who
had proposed using the long-eared animal.
"General Sherman is all right, but he doesn't
like to pull automobiles."

"Who's General Sherman?" asked Russ.

"That's my mule's name," answered the
canal boat man.

"You children had better run back to Mr.
Brown's now," said Daddy Bunker to Russ and
the others. "We'll see what we can do toward
getting the car out, though I don't see how we
can travel any farther to-day. It means an-
other night on the road."

"Oh, it's fun! I like it," said Rose.

"It will be all right if nobody walks in his
sleep," added Russ.

"But I want to see mother and Mun Bun
and Margy," said Vi, in a sad little voice.

"We'll see them to-morrow," promised her
father. "And I talked to mother on the tele-

128 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

phone, so I know she's all right, and she knows
we're all right."

Vi looked more cheerful on hearing this, and
soon she and the others were ready to start
back to Mr. Brown's pleasant farmhouse.

"Aren't you coming back with us, Daddy,
and finish your dinner?" Laddie asked his
father.

"We had enough," said Mr. Bunker.

"You didn't eat your pie," said Laddie.

"Well, then, I'll take two pieces at supper,"
said Mr. Bunker, and he laughed with Cap-
tain Ben.

The rest of the day passed quickly for the
four little Bunkers and Tad Munson, who
played with them around the barn and the
farmhouse. Tad seemed happier, now that he
had been promised a ride almost to the town
near Grand View where he wanted to go. But
with all his good-nature, there seemed to be
something strange about this boy who had
taken apples because he was hungry.

"I have my own ideas about that lad," is
what Russ heard Mr. Brown saying to his wife
when milking time came.

"What do you think," asked Mrs. Brown.

THE MISSING BOY 129

"I think he's been in some kind of trouble,"
went on the farmer. "Too bad, it is, for he
seems like a nice lad."

Russ wondered what could be the matter
with Tad.

Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben came up the
road from the ditch where they had been work-
ing on the automobile. They looked tired, and
they were very dirty.

"Did you get it out of the ditch ?" asked Russ
of his father.

"Yes," was the answer, "it's out of the ditch.
And we managed to get it to a garage where
we hope it will be fixed so we can go on in
the morning."

"If we don't get to Grand View pretty soon,"
said Captain Ben, "I'm afraid the six little
Bunkers will think I'm a pretty poor sort of
a vacation planner. I haven't given you a very
good time yet."

"Oh, we've had lots of fun !" Rose hastened
to say.

"And the mule was awful funny the way he
kicked up his heels," laughed Vi.

"I wish I could think of a riddle about him,"
said Laddie.

130 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

The others laughed at the little fellow, and
then, when Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben
had washed off as much of the oil and grease
as possible, they all sat down to supper. Tad
was with the four little Bunkers.

"Will you be ready to ride back to Grand
View with us in the morning ?" asked Captain
Ben of the strange boy.

"Oh, yes, thank you," was the answer. "I
want to get to Avalon as soon as I can."

After supper the visitors sat out on the broad
porch in the pleasant shadows of evening. Mr.
Brown was telling some simple riddles he
knew, and Laddie was trying to guess them,
when, suddenly, the farmer started from his
chair and looked down toward the orchard.

"What's the matter?" asked his wife. "Do
you see that red-haired boy after our fruit?"

"Well," said the farmer slowly, "it's a little
too dark to see if he has red hair or not, but
there's somebody down in my orchard. I'll
go and take a look."

"Better be careful," warned his wife.

"I'm not afraid," was the answer, and he
stepped quietly from the porch and walked off
in the darkness.

THE MISSING BOY 131

"Maybe we'd better go with him," suggested
Captain Ben. But just as he and Daddy
Bunker were starting to follow the farmer,
Mr. Brown came back.

"I reckon it was only some tramps sneaking
around," he said. "But I'll turn old dog Major
loose, and he'll drive 'em off if they try to rob
my hen roost."

Russ, Rose and the others were so sleepy
that they were sent to bed early by their father.
Russ and Rose wondered if they would be dis-
turbed as they had been the previous night by
the little River children.

"You don't walk in your sleep, do you?"
asked Russ of Tad, who was to have a little
room to himself.

"No, I never did that I know of," he an-
swered.

The night passed quietly, as far as the
Bunker children knew, and they all slept
soundly. Rose did wake up once during the
night to get Vi a drink, and it was then that
Rose heard the distant barking of a dog. But
as this often happened, even at home, she did
not wonder at it, and she soon went to sleep
again.

132 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

The sun was shining brightly when she and
the others awoke.

"Well, I didn't hear anybody walk in his
sleep," said Russ with a laugh, as he came
downstairs.

"All I heard was a dog barking," declared
Rose.

"Where's Tad?" asked Captain Ben.

No one seemed to know. He had been given
a room on the third floor.

"Guess I'd better go up and call him," said
Captain Ben. "He may have overslept and we
want to get an early start — that is, we do if
the garage men have my car fixed. I'll call
Tad."

He went upstairs, but came down with a
queer look in his face.

"That's funny," he said.

"What is?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"Tad isn't in his room," answered Captain
Ben. "And, what's more, his bed hasn't been
slept in. Tad is missing!"

CHAPTER XIV

IN THE OLD LOG

Everybody, even the four little Bunkers,
was surprised to hear this.

"Tad missing!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker.
"Are you sure he hasn't got up early to help
with the chores ?" and he looked at Mr. Brown,
who had just come in to breakfast.

"No, he wasn't helping me," was the an-
swer. "He did help with the chores last night.
Said he was doing it to pay for his dinner and
supper, and I must say he was spry about it,
too. I'd like to have such a boy around the
farm, and I asked him if he didn't want to
work for me. But he said he wanted to get
to Avalon, and that he was going to ride as
far as Grand View with you folks this morn-
ing."

"I did promise to take him," said Captain

133

134 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Ben; "but he seems to have made an early-
start to get ahead of us."

"I'm sorry for the poor fellow," said Mrs.
Brown. "But if he's gone, he's gone, and
that's all there is to it. My private opinion is
that Tad ran away from home, and now he's
anxious to run back again. That's what I
think."

"I think so, too," said her husband. "Well,
he seems able to take care of himself, and I'm
glad he wasn't an apple thief ; anyhow he only
took a few to keep from starving, and I didn't
begrudge him those. Now let's get breakfast.
I suppose you folks are anxious about your
auto."

"Yes," said Captain Ben. "Though the
garage man said he'd work on it all night to
get it ready for me this morning. I'll go down
directly after breakfast."

The meal was soon on the table, and the
hungry little Bunkers ate with good appetites.
At first they had felt sorry about Tad's ab-
sence, but they soon forgot about him in think-
ing of the fun of traveling again in Captain
Ben's car.

"And we'll see mother and Mun Bun and

IN THE OLD LOG 135

Margy to-night," said Rose, as she hummed
a merry song.

"HI be glad!" cried Russ, and he whistled,
while a catbird in a tree outside tried to imi-
tate him. Catbirds are relatives of the mock-
ing birds, and they often imitate other birds,
just as the mocking birds do.

"You children stay here while Captain Ben
and I go to the garage to see if the car is
ready," directed Daddy Bunker, as he and the
marine started off.

They had hardly reached the front gate
before Mrs. Brown came running out on the
porch. She seemed much excited, and was
waving her hands in the air as Norah had
waved hers the time the Bunker chimney
caught fire.

"Wait a minute !" she called to Captain Ben
and Mr. Bunker.

"What's the matter?" asked the children's
father. "Have you found the missing Tad?"

"No. But some of my things are missing,
too!" exclaimed the farmer's wife. "I left a
box of my jewelry on the table at the head of
my bed. Now it's gone — my box of jewelry
is gone !"

136 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"You don't say so !" cried her husband, who
had heard what his wife said. "Your box of
rings gone, and those ear rings I gave you!
I know what happened! That boy Tad took
'em and skipped off in the night! That's the
reason he didn't sleep in his bed. He took my
wife's things !"

The four little Bunkers stared.

"Hm," said Captain Ben slowly. "It seems
hard to accuse a boy of anything like that, but
it does look bad for him. Where were your
things, Mrs. Brown?"

The farmer's wife showed them her bed-
room on the first floor, as is the case in many
old-fashioned country houses.

"I always put my box of jewelry on the table
at the head of my bed," Mrs. Brown explained.
"That's so I can run out quickly with it in case
of fire."

"And it's also very easy for some one to
reach in from the outside and take it," said
Daddy Bunker. "Was this window open ?" he
asked, pointing to the one at the head of Mrs.
Brown's bed.

"Yes," she answered. "It was a hot night,
so I left the window open."

IN THE OLD LOG 137

Mr. Bunker looked at the ground beneath
the window.

"That's how it happened," he said. "Some
one has been walking around under the win-
dow. I can see the footmarks in the ground,
which is still soft from the rain. Whoever it
was, came here, reached in through the open
window from outside, and took the jewelry."

"It must have been that boy Tad !" said the
farmer.

"Let's have a look at the footprints in the
dirt," suggested Captain Ben.

All of them, including the four little
Bunkers, went out under the window. Daddy
Bunker allowed no one to walk too near, as he
said he wanted to see how many footmarks
there were. After he had looked he said:

"There was only one person here in the
night. Whether it was the boy Tad or not,
I can't say. The footprints aren't very big,
and might have been made by a boy with large
feet or a man with small feet."

"Tad's feet were big," said Rose. "Or, any-
how, he had on big shoes. He said they didn't
belong to him, but they were the best he could
find"

138 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Wait a minute now, before we get to think-
ing Tad did this," said Captain Ben. "Were-
n't there some tramps around last night, Mr.
Brown?"

"Well, there was somebody in my orchard,"
answered the farmer. "I reckon they were
tramps."

"Maybe one of the tramps took your wife's
box of jewelry from your room," went on the
marine.

"I never thought of them!" said Mrs.
Brown. "I don't want to lose my nice jewelry,
but I'd rather it was taken by tramps than by
Tad. He seemed to be a nice boy !"

"Maybe it isn't stolen at all," suggested
Russ. "Once my mother thought her watch
was stolen and she found it afterward in the
bathroom."

"Well, I wish I could find my wrist watch,"
said Captain Ben.

"Was that taken, too, last night?" asked
Mr. Brown.

"No, I missed that when we were packing to
take the six little Bunkers to my bungalow at
Grand View," was the answer. "I guess I'll
never find my watch. But it is possible that

IN THE OLD LOG 139

you may have put your jewelry somewhere
else, Mrs. Brown. We'd better look."

But the farmer's wife was sure she had
placed the box on the table at the head of her
bed near the open window, and a search all
through the house did not bring it to light.
So the jewelry was gone, and Tad was gone,
and there was no sign of the tramps.

Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben helped in
the search for the missing rings and other
things, and when they could not be found they
went down after the automobile. It had been
repaired so it would go again, and soon the
four little Bunkers and their father and the
marine were ready to travel on again.

"If you see anything of Tad or some tramps,
ask them if they have my jewelry," called the
farmer's wife to the little party as they started
off.

"We will," promised Russ.

Once more they were on the way. The
weather was fine, and the roads firm and Cap-
tain Ben's automobile was almost as good as
before it had gone head-first into the ditch by
the canal.

"I almost forget how mother and Mun Bun

140 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

and Margy look," said Rose, as they were on
the last stage of their journey.

"Yes, though it is only two days since we
have seen them, it seems much longer," said
her father. "But we'll all be together this
evening, and then for some glorious times !"

"Hurray!" cried Laddie. "I'm going to
think up a lot of new riddles, too !"

They stopped at a wayside spring to get a
drink. The spring was not far from a farm-
house, and as Russ, Rose and the other chil-
dren were looking at the flowers in the front
yard they noticed a dog barking at a big log
which lay in a meadow not far from the road.

"Is that your dog?" asked Russ of a farm
boy who came out to look at the automobile
party.

"Yes," was the answer. "And he's been
barking around that log all morning. I guess
maybe something's inside. Maybe a ground-
hog is in there."

"Oh, I'd love to see a groundhog !" exclaimed
Rose. "Let's go up and look !"

"All right," agreed Russ. "May we?" he
asked his father, who was talking to the farmer
while Captain Ben was oiling one of the springs.

IN THE OLD LOG 141

of the car where a squeak had sounded since
they started.

"Yes; but be careful," cautioned Mr.
Bunker. "It may be a skunk instead of a
groundhog that the dog is barking at."

"Oh, I don't believe so," said the farm boy.
"Come on!" he called to the Bunker children,
and they approached the big log in the field.

"It's hollow," said Russ, as they neared it.

"Yes, it's been there a good many years,"
the farm boy said. "Sometimes, when my
sister and I are playing hide and seek, I crawl
in there. What's the matter, Towser?" he
asked his dog, who was barking louder than
ever. "What's in the log?"

Russ stooped down and looked through it.
He straightened up suddenly.

"There is something in it," he said. "And
it's something that wears shoes! I can see
'em!"

CHAPTER XV

THE BUNKERS GET TOGETHER

v/

Russ Bunker quickly drew back away from
the end of the log after he had stooped down
and had seen "something with shoes," as he
said.

"Maybe it's a bear !" said Vi.

"Pooh! How could a bear wear shoes?"
asked Laddie.

"Well, I don't care !" exclaimed Vi. "I saw
a bear in a circus once, and he wore roller
skates. And if a bear can wear roller skates
I guess a bear can wear shoes."

"There aren't any bears around here," said
the farm boy. "Let me take a look."

He stooped down as Russ had done, and
looked within the log for some little time, the
dog, meanwhile, leaping around and barking.

"Do you see anything?" asked Russ.

"Yes, I do," answered the farm boy. "I see

142

THE BUNKERS GET TOGETHER 143

something with shoes on, and I see two legs
and I see "

Just then there was a movement inside the
log, the dog barked louder than ever, and then,
from the other end of the fallen, hollow tree
came — the missing boy Tad !

"Oh! Oh! Oh !" exclaimed Russ, Rose, and
Laddie in turn. As for Vi, she had just
opened her mouth to ask a question and she
was so surprised that she forgot what it was,
and she had no time to cry "Oh!" as did the
others.

As for Tad, he brushed off some of the dry,
rotten wood that clung to his clothes, and then
he stood looking at the four little Bunkers, at
the farm boy, and at the dog. The dog went
up, smelled of Tad's legs, and, seeming to count
him as a friend, stopped barking.

"How'd you get in there?" asked Russ.

"I crawled in to rest and sleep," was the an-
swer. "I'd been walking nearly all night, ex-
cept I got a ride on a milk wagon part of the
way."

"What made you run away from Mr.
Brown's?" asked Rose.

"Oh, I was in a hurry to get — I just wanted

144 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

to get away, and I didn't want to wait all night
till you folks started in the morning," was the
hesitating answer. "I was afraid maybe your
auto wouldn't work, and I was in a hurry. So
I started off by myself."

"Didn't you go to bed ?" asked Rose.

"No," answered Tad.

Just then Daddy Bunker, who had finished
his talk with the farmer, while Captain Ben
was oiling the automobile spring, called :

"Come, children! We must be moving!"

"Look ! We found Tad !" cried Laddie.

"In a hollow log!" added Vi.

Mr. Bunker and Captain Ben, looking up
and seeing the missing boy, hurried to the chil-
dren.

"So you thought you'd rather travel on by
yourself, did you?" asked Daddy Bunker.

"Yes, sir. I was in a hurry," was the an-
swer. "I went up to the room where I was to
sleep, but I got to thinking I could travel all
night, on account of having so many good
things to eat. So I sneaked out when nobody
was looking, and I walked along. I got a ride
part of the way on a milk wagon, and walked
the rest. It was almost daylight when I got

THE BUNKERS GET TOGETHER 145

here, and I saw this hollow log, so I crawled
in and went to sleep."

Daddy Bunker walked closer to the tramp
boy, for that is what he really seemed now.

"Tad," said the children's father kindly, "I
am going to ask you a question, but I don't
want you to feel bad about it. This morning,
when we awoke and found you gone, there was
also something else missing from Mr. Brown's
house. It was his wife's box of jewelry. Now,
Tad "

"I didn't take it! I didn't take a thing!"
cried Tad earnestly. "I just went away by my-
self because I was in a hurry to get to Avalon,
and I was afraid maybe your auto would break
down. I didn't take Mrs. Brown's jewelry!
I never even saw it! I've been a bad boy in
some ways," he went on, "but the only thing
I took was some apples, and you saw me have
them. And I wouldn't have taken them only
I was so terribly hungry! I never stole any
jewelry — honest I didn't!"

He looked at Mr. Bunker with clear, bright
eyes, and tears began to come into them.

"Tad, I believe you," said Mr. Bunker.

"So do I !" exclaimed Captain Ben. "I pre-

146 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

sume it was those tramps, or one of them, who
reached in the window and took the jewelry-
box. I'm glad it was not you, Tad. And, now
that we have found you and the auto is all right
again, don't you want to ride with us the rest
of the way ?"

"Yes, thank you, I'd like to," was the an-
swer.

"Did you have any breakfast?" asked Vi.
"We had some lovely pancakes at Mrs.
Brown's."

"No, I didn't have any," Tad answered.

"My mother'll give you something," offered
the farm boy.

"I think we might all stop for lunch if your
mother will sell us a meal," said Daddy Bunker.

"Yes, she sometimes gets a meal for auto-
ists," the boy answered.

Soon the Bunker children, with the newly-
found Tad, Daddy, and Captain Ben were sit-
ting down to a nice lunch.

"We've had a terrible lot of adventures
since we started," said Rose, as she took a
second piece of cake which the farmer's wife
offered.

"Yes," agreed Russ. "It's been a lot of

THE BUNKERS GET TOGETHER 147

fun — a heap sight more fun than going to
school."

"But you'll have to go to school when we
get back from Captain Ben's," said Daddy
Bunker.

"That'll be a long while, and we'll have a
lot of fun before we go," laughed Russ.

"Did you think of any riddles when you slept
out in that log all night?" asked Laddie of
Tad, when it was time to start again.

"No, I can't say I did," was the answer.
"All I thought of was getting back to — back
to Avalon, and I wondered where I'd get my
breakfast. I didn't think I'd sleep until nearly
noon. Now I've had my breakfast and dinner
all in one," and he looked at his emptied plate.

A little later the four little Bunkers, with
Tad, Captain Ben and Daddy were on the road
once more. All went well and they arrived at
the seashore bungalow in Grand View without
any more accidents.

"Oh, Mother, I'm so glad to see you !" cried
Rose, as the car came to a stop in front of
Captain Ben's pretty summer home not far
from the beach.

"And I'm glad to see you, my darlings!"

148 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

cried Mother Bunker. "It seems a week since
I've had you. My, what a lot of things must
have happened !"

"They did — lots!" said Russ. "And,
Mother, this is Tad, and he lives in Avalon."

"And Mr. Brown thought he was a pesky
apple boy but he wasn't," said Vi. "He only
took a few 'cause he was hungry."

"I wants an apple!" said Mun Bun, as he
scampered around his brothers and sisters.

"And I want two apples!" said Margy.

Mrs. Bunker wanted Tad to stay to supper,
but he said he had some relatives in Avalon,
the next town, which could soon be reached by
a trolley car. So he left, after thanking the
Bunkers, and saying he would come over to
see them soon.

"There's something queer about that boy,"
said Mr. Bunker, when Tad had gone to the
trolley station. "I believe he has run away
from home and is anxious to get back."

"Do you think he had anything to do with
taking the jewelry?" asked his wife.

"No," was the answer, "I do not. I believe
the tramps took it."

"You didn't find my wrist watch in any of

THE BUNKERS GET TOGETHER 149

the things you unpacked, did you ?" asked Cap-
tain Ben of Mrs. Bunker.

"No," was the answer, "I did not. It's too
bad you had to lose it."

There was a happy time when all the Bunk-
ers were united again.

"We'll all be bunked together to-night — the
Bunkers will bunk together," said the chil-
dren's mother, as she made up the beds, or
"bunks," as Captain Ben called them. Before
going to bed the children who had made the
automobile trip told most of what had hap-
pened during their journey from the time they
were caught in the storm and were awakened
by the sleep-walking Jack until they left Mr.
Brown's.

"What kind of a time did you have ?" asked
Daddy Bunker of his wife. "You didn't lose
Mun Bun or Margy on the way down here,
that's sure."

"No, we hadn't a bit of trouble," she said.
"We got here in good time, though of course I
missed you and the children."

So the Bunkers were put in their bunks, and
soon they were all asleep. It was some time
past midnight, as they learned later, when Mr.

150 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Bunker and Captain Ben heard a knock at the
bungalow front door.

"Hello, who's there?" called the captain,
turning on the electric light, for his bungalow
was almost like a city home in some respects.
"Who's there and what do you want?" asked
the marine.

"Maybe it's tramps," said Laddie to Russ,
with whom he was sleeping. The two boys had
been awakened by the knock.

"Tramps wouldn't knock," Russ said. "May-
be it's a telegram, or maybe somebody is lost
and wants to know the way."

Russ heard Captain Ben get up and go to
the door.

"Who's there?" asked the marine again.

"Have you seen anything of a boy named
Tad Munson?" was the question asked. "I
heard he came on with you in an auto, and I'm
looking for him. Have you seen Tad Mun-
son?"

CHAPTER XVI

AN UNEXPECTED RIDE

Mother and Daddy Bunker, who with
Laddie, Russ and Rose, had also been awak-
ened by the knock on the bungalow door,
heard Captain Ben quickly open the door when
that question came.

"Tad Munson!" exclaimed the captain.
"He was with us this evening. He stayed here
to supper and got on a trolley car to go to some
relatives in Avalon, he said. Who are you?"
went on the captain, and those who were lis-
tening heard some one come into the bungalow
from outside.

"I'm Tao'f: father," was the answer. "I've
been looking for him some time, and to-night
I heard he was seen over here in Grand View.
I traced him to you folks, but now you tell me
he's gone again."

"Yes, he started for Avalon," went on Cap-

151

152 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

tain Ben, while Russ, who was listening, won-
dered how it felt to be away from your home
and all one's family.

"Well, if Tad started for home he never got
there — at least he hadn't when I left, about
two hours ago," said Mr. Munson. "Poor,
foolish boy ! I feel sorry for him !"

"Did he run away from horns ?" asked Cap-
tain Ben.

By this time Mr. Bunker had got up, slipped
on a bath robe, and was now with the two
other men. Russ, Rose, Laddie and their
mother still listened to the talk, which could
plainly be heard. Vi, Mun Bun and Margy
were sound asleep in their beds.

"Yes, Tad ran away," said Mr. Munson.
"He was a little bad, but not very, and I said
I'd have to punish him. I wasn't going to whip
him, or anything like that, but I was going
to take his bicycle away from him and not let
him ride it for a week. But he is a foolish,
quick-tempered boy, and he didn't wait to see
what I was going to do. He just rode off on
his wheel, and I haven't seen him nor heard
from him since."

"But he started for home," said Daddy

AN UNEXPECTED RIDE 153

Bunker. "We brought him as far as here,
and he said he could go the rest of the way on
the trolley car."

"Didn't he have his bicycle?" asked Mr.
Munson.

"No, he was on foot when we first saw him
in a farmer's apple orchard," Captain Ben an-
swered.

"Then he must have sold his wheel to get
money to live on," remarked Tad's father.
"And, I suppose, after he started back home,
and perhaps even got on the trolley car, he
was afraid to come back on account of not
having his bicycle. So he must have run away
again."

"That's too bad!" exclaimed Captain Ben.
"How did you come to learn he had been with
us?" he asked Mr. Munson.

"Oh, I've been searching for my boy ever
since he ran away," answered Tad's father.
"I come over here to Grand View every day
to make inquiries. This evening I heard that
my boy had been seen in an automobile. I
made inquiries, and learned you were the only
folks who had come to town in an auto with
some children, so I came here as soon as I

154 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

could. I'm sorry I had to wake you up in the
middle of the night."

"Oh, that's all right," said Captain Ben.
"I'm sorry about your boy. If I had known
he felt afraid to go home alone, I'd have taken
him over in my car."

"Maybe he'll come back in the morning,
after he spends another night alone," said the
father. "Tad is a queer boy. I don't exactly
understand him, I feel sometimes. Well, if he
isn't here I suppose I might as well go back
home."

"I'm sorry," said Captain Ben. "Won't you
stay the rest of the night, it's so late?"

"No, I'd better get back," was the answer.
"If you see anything of my boy just send him
back home and say I'll forget and forgive
everything."

"We will," promised Daddy Bunker. "I
think he may be hiding out around here some-
where, as we found him hiding in the hollow

log."

"Did he do that?" asked Mr. Munson.

"Yes," answered Mr. Bunker, and he and
Captain Ben told all they knew about the run-
away boy. Then Mr. Munson left, the three

AN UNEXPECTED. RIDE 155

little Bunkers who had awakened to listen to
the talk went to sleep again, and the bungalow
was quiet once more.

"Did you find Tad?" asked Laddie, as soon
as he was up next morning.

"Oh, ho, you little tykes! So you were
awake, were you?" asked their father, with a
laugh, as he pulled Vi's hair playfully. "No,
poor Tad doesn't seem to be around here, but
I think he'll be all right."

"And you mustn't worry about him and
spoil your extra vacation at my place," said
Captain Ben. "You came to Grand View to
have a good time, and I came to forget about
the war. I want you to be as happy as you
can. Come along, as soon as you've had break-
fast, and we'll go out on the water."

"Oh, it's just a lovely place here !" exclaimed
Rose, as she looked from the window. "Are
all those your boats there?" and she pointed to
several craft floating near a dock that extended
out into a small bay.

"Not all of them," said Captain Ben. "I
have a motor boat and two rowboats. I'm
going to take you for a motor-boat ride this
morning."

156 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"That'll be fun!" cried Laddie.

"Well, be ready to start in half an hour,"
went on Captain Ben, and he thrust out his
arm and glanced down at his wrist. "There I
go again!" he exclaimed. "Looking for my
watch that's lost! I don't seem to get used to
being without it."

"It is too bad," said Mother Bunker. "I did
hope I might find it among the things when
I unpacked, but it wasn't there."

"Oh, never mind," and Captain Ben laughed,
trying to show that he did not feel bad. "We
won't worry about it any more than we'll worry
about Tad. Thev may both turn up together
some day."

"And maybe we'll find Mrs. Brown's
jewelry," added Russ.

"Not much chance of that," remarked his
father. "I imagine the tramps took the box
of rings and other things, and Mrs. Brown will
never see them again."

"Oh, that's too bad!" exclaimed Mrs.
Bunker, who knew how Mrs. Brown must feel
at losing her keepsakes.

But, as Captain Ben had said, the grown
folks did not want the six little Bunkers to

AN UNEXPECTED RIDE 157

worry over matters which could not be helped,
and so spoil their late vacation.

"May we go down and play on the beach
while we're waiting for Captain Ben to take us
out in the motor boat?" asked Rose of her
mother, when breakfast was finished.

"Yes," was the answer. "And look after
Mun Bun and Margy. I think they'll be care-
ful, but watch them just the same."

Rose promised, and soon the six little
Bunkers were shouting and laughing on the
sands of the bay which came up almost to Cap-
tain Ben's bungalow at Grand View. The
bungalow stood on a little hill, at the foot of
which was the water. This water was the
bay, and, farther out, was the big ocean. On
the bay were many boats, for it was a place
of shelter during storms. Not far from the
bungalow was a pier that extended out into
the water, and the captain's rowboats, motor
boat, as well as the boats belonging to several
other bungalow and cottage owners, were tied
near by.

"I think this is the loveliest place!" ex-
claimed Rose, as she sat down on the sand and
looked out across the water.

158 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Yes, it's dandy," replied Russ. "And this
is the nicest part of the year. I'm glad we
don't have to go back to school right away."

"Can I make some sand pies?" asked Mun
Bun, coming up to Rose with some shells in
his hand.

"Yes, make all you want, but don't get wet,"
Rose warned him.

"I'm going to make pies, too," said Margy,
and soon the two youngest children were busy
playing in the sand.

Russ walked up and down the beach looking
for odd shells, for he had started to make a
collection of them. Rose remained on the
sand, watching some men who were working
on a motor boat. She saw that Mun Bun and
Margy were all right, and the last she had
heard from Laddie and Vi was when Laddie
was trying to guess the answer to a riddle
about seaweed. It was a riddle which Laddie
had made up himself, and perhaps it was not
as easy as some other riddle would have been.

At any rate, Laddie and Vi were talking
about this riddle the last Rose heard them.
She was thinking how nice it was to be
at Grand View, and she was wondering if

AN UNEXPECTED RIDE 159

Captain Ben would ever find his lost watch
when she was suddenly startled by a scream.
That it came from one of the little Bunkers
Rose knew at once, and her first glance was
toward Mun Bun and Margy. They were still
playing quietly on the sand.

Rose next looked for Laddie and Violet and,
to her surprise, she saw them in a rowboat
some distance from shore, and the rowboat was
being pulled along by the motor craft on which
the men had been working. Most unexpectedly
Laddie and Vi were being ridden out on the
broad bay!

"Oh, come back! Come back!" cried Rose,
springing to her feet and waving her hands to
her brother and sister. "Come back here!"

"We can't! We can't come back!" cried
Laddie, and then he and Vi fell down in a
huddled heap in the middle of the rowboat
which was being pulled rapidly along by the
motor boat.

CHAPTER XVII

THE RAGGED MEN

Russ Bunker, who had been walking along
the shore gathering pretty shells, looked back
as he heard Rose scream.

"What's the matter?" shouted Russ. Rose
pointed to the rowboat out in the middle of
the bay, in which could be seen Vi and Laddie.
The two small Bunkers were clinging to one
another, and were still being towed, in their
boat, by the motor craft. They were not so
very far from shore, but far enough to cause
them to be frightened, and also to frighten
Rose and Russ. As for Mun Bun and Margy,
they were too small to be really worried,
though they wondered why Laddie and Vi had
gone off in a boat by themselves, especially hav-
ing a motor boat pull them along.

And this was just what Rose and Russ were
also wondering. Russ ran back to Rose.

160

THE RAGGED MEN 161

"What made them go off in a boat like that ?"
asked Russ.

"I don't know," Rose answered. "I thought
they were all right, and then, when I looked
again, I saw them there. And they want to
come back, but they can't !"

"Oh, maybe the men in the motor boat are
taking them away !" Russ exclaimed, for there
were two men in the boat that was towing the
smaller craft. But these men did not seem to
be paying any attention to the two children in
the rowboat behind them. The two men were
up in the front of their craft, and appeared
to be working at the stearing wheel.

"Come back! Come back!" cried Russ,
holding his hand to his mouth to make a sort
of funnel, or megaphone, as he had often seen
the fishermen do, and also the cowboys on
Uncle Fred's ranch.

Across the water came faintly to the ears
of Rose and Russ the sobs and cries of Laddie
and Vi in the rowboat.

"Those men are taking 'em away!" cried
Rose. "What shall we do?"

Just then Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker
came down from the bungalow, up on the hill,

162 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

to the beach where the children had gone to
play. At once the two men saw that some-
thing was the matter. Then they noticed the
two little Bunkers out in the boat.

"Who let them go?" cried Daddy Bunker.

"Nobody let them go," said Russ. "Those
men are taking them away!"

Captain Ben laughed when he heard this.

"Those men in the motor boat are friends
of mine," he said. "They are trying their
boat, after having fixed it, and I guess Laddie
and Vi asked them for a ride and they're get-
ting a tow."

But just as Captain Ben said this the two
men who had been in the front part, or bow,
of the motor boat, turned around, and seemed,
for the first time, to become aware that they
were towing a rowboat with two children in it.
One man called to the other, and then the two
of them walked back to the stern, where the
rope of the rowboat was fastened. Then the
motor boat went more slowly.

"I see how it is," said Captain Ben. "When
Mr. Thompson and Mr. Wade were in their
boat, fixing it, Laddie and Vi must have come
up at the stern, making no noise. The chil-

THE RAGGED MEN 163

dren fastened their rowboat to the motor boat
and were taken for a ride before they knew it.
This is the first my friends knew they had chil-
dren towing behind them."

This part, at least, seemed to be true, and
those on shore could see the two men in the
motor boat lifting Laddie and Vi out of the
small craft into the larger one. Then the
motor boat was headed toward shore, and the
two little Bunkers were soon with the rest of
the family.

"We gave them a ride without knowing it,"
said Mr. Thompson, when Laddie and Vi were
over their fright at being carried off, as they
thought.

"What made you fasten your boat to the
motor boat, and why did you get in the row-
boat at all?" asked Daddy Bunker, a bit
sternly.

"We just wanted to sit in the boat a minute,"
explained Laddie. "I was trying to think of
a riddle about a boat, and I thought maybe I
could think of a better one if I got in one, and
so did Vi, and then we got a ride and we got
scared."

"Did you get into a boat and row out to

164 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

the motor boat?" asked their father, in sur-
prise.

"I'll tell you how it must have happened,"
said Mr. Wade. "This boat tied to the stern
of the motor craft is ours. We kept it tied so
we could row back and forth while we were
fixing our big boat. We pulled up our anchor
to get ready to take a trial ride, and our row-
boat must have swung in near the dock. Then
the children must have got in when we weren't
looking, and we started off. Our engine made
so much noise that we didn't hear their cries
or the shouts of the children on shore, for both
Mr. Thompson and I were up forward fixing
the steering wheel."

"Is that how it happened?" asked Captain
Ben of Laddie.

"Yes," answered the little boy. "We got in
the little boat and it was fast with a rope to
the big boat, and then we began to move, and
I couldn't think of any riddle at all."

"Well, you'd better keep out of boats unless
your mother or I or Captain Ben is with you,"
said Daddy Bunker, and the children promised.

"Now I'll take you all for a ride in my motor
boat," offered Captain Ben, when the excite-

THE RAGGED MEN 165

ment had quieted down. "We'll take a trip
around the bay."

Mother Bunker put up a lunch for the chil-
dren, and they were soon in Captain Ben's big
motor boat, speeding over the blue waters of
the bay. Daddy and Mother Bunker also went
ale:.

"Are there any nice places to have picnics
here?" asked Rose of the captain, as she sat
near him at the steering wheel.

"Oh, yes, lots of places," he answered.
"There are some cute little islands in the bay,
and we'll go camping on one some day."

"That will be lovely !" exclaimed Rose.

Laddie was so interested in watching the
water slip along at the side of the swift motor
boat that he forgot about his riddle, though
Vi did not forget to ask questions, and finally
her mother said:

"Here, take that!"

The "that" was a molasses cookie, and in
munching it Vi forgot about the questions for
a time. Or rather, her mouth was too full to
ask any.

The merry party went ashore after about an
hour's ride, the captain steering the boat into

166 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

a little cove, and back from the sandy shore a
little way was a clump of trees.

"Are we going to eat our lunch in there?"
asked Rose.

"Yes," her mother answered, and soon they
had spread out their picnic lunch.

"We'll have a picnic like this on an island
some day," promised Captain Ben.

"And shall we have more to eat?" asked
Russ.

"Why, isn't there enough here?" his father
inquired, with a laugh.

"Oh, there's enough for now," Russ an-
swered. "But if we go to an island we could
pretend we were shipwrecked, and then we'd
be hungry and want a lot to eat."

While the captain and Daddy and Mother
Bunker sat under the shade of the trees and
talked, the four older Bunker children wan-
dered around the little grove, after having
eaten the "snack," as the marine had called it.
Mun Bun and Margy stayed near their
mother.

Russ was digging away in the soft earth,
to get a queer-looking stone which he wanted
to add to his collection of shells, and Rose was

THE RAGGED MEN 167

watching some ants which were busily at work,
when suddenly Laddie, who had wandered off
down a little path, came running back, with Vi
just ahead of him. Rose at once saw that
something was the matter.

"What is it, Laddie? Did you see a snake?"
she asked.

The little fellow, who was out of breath,
shook his head.

"Nope! I didn't see — a snake," he an-
swered. "But I saw — a lot — of ragged men —
hiding in the bushes, and Vi saw 'em too.
Didn't you, Vi ? A lot of ragged men !"

"Were they tramps?" asked Rose quickly,
as she took hold of Vi's hand.

"I guess so," Laddie answered. "They were
terribly ragged men ! I'm going back to daddy
and mother!" he added.

CHAPTER XVIII

MORE THINGS GONE

Rose Bunker gave one look toward the
thick clump of trees, through which wound a
path, along which Laddie and Vi had gone for
a little distance.

"Come on!" exclaimed Rose, taking her
small brother and sister by their hands. "We'll
all go back to daddy and mother."

Russ, who was still looking for stones, and
any other curious things he could pick up,
glanced toward the other three Bunkers.

"Where are you going?" Russ wanted to
know.

"Back home. I mean back to daddy, mother
and Captain Ben," explained Rose.

"What for?"

"'Cause I saw a lot of ragged men in the
bushes," answered Laddie. "They were awful

168

MORE THINGS GONE »0

ragged, and they had a fire, and some of 'em
were asleep, and "

"Tramps!" exclaimed Russ, and he started
toward the path, down which Laddie had
pointed as leading to the place where he had
seen the tramps. "I'm going to look at 'em!"

"No, you're not !" cried Rose. "You're com-
ing right back with us, Russ Bunker, or I'll tell
father on you!" and she spoke in a low but
very earnest voice. Russ looked at her a
moment, and then at the dark clump of trees.

"Yes, I guess I'll go back with you," he said.
"I'll take you back, and then daddy and Cap-
tain Ben and I will come back here and drive
the tramps away."

"Daddy won't let you," said Rose; and, in
his heart, Russ believed his sister was right.

"Come on!" exclaimed Vi. "I don't want
any of the ragged men to get me."

"Oh, they won't get you. See ! Daddy and
mother and Captain Ben are right down there,"
and Rose pointed to where the others of the
picnic party could be seen in the grove on the
beach.

"My! What's the matter? Did you see a
cow?" asked Captain Ben, with a smile, when

170 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

the four children came hurrying back from
their excursion.

"I saw some ragged men !" exclaimed Laddie.

"I saw 'em too — and I don't like 'em! They
were tramps !" declared Vi. "And maybe they
were the same tramps that took Mrs. Brown's
jewelry."

"Oh, I hardly think so," said Mrs. Bunker.
But daddy and Captain Ben looked at each
other, and then both men rose quickly to their
feet.

"Tramps, eh?" said Captain Ben in a low
voice. "We don't want any such around here.
And I don't believe the other cottagers know
it. Let's go and take a look," he said to Mr.
Bunker.

"Can't I come?" asked Russ.

"No, you stay with mother," his father an-
swered.

"There ! I told you they wouldn't let you !"
exclaimed Rose.

"Well, I don't care. Maybe some tramps
will come here, and I can drive 'em away,"
declared Russ. "I'm going to get a lot of
stones to throw at 'em !"

"You. won't need to!" laughed his mother.

MORE THINGS GONE 171

"No tramps will come here, and it may have
been only some fishermen you saw. Fisher-
men sometimes wear ragged clothes."

"These weren't fishermen, 'cause they didn't
have any fishes," declared Laddie.

"Maybe they didn't have any luck, or else
perhaps they hadn't yet gone fishing," his
mother answered. "Anyhow, we'll leave the
tramps, if such they were, to daddy and Cap-
tain Ben. And it will soon be time for us to
get back to the bungalow."

"Is there anything more to eat?" Russ
wanted to know.

"Not even some cookie crumbs," said his
mother. "I threw them to the birds and squir-
rels. But when we go on the picnic to the
island we'll take more lunch along."

"I hope we do," sighed Russ, " 'cause I'm
hungry right now."

The children sat around their mother while
daddy and Captain Ben walked toward the
grove where Laddie had seen the tramps.

"Do you suppose they could be the same ones
who took Mrs. Brown's things, Mother?" asked
Rose.

"They might be," her mother replied.

172 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Though Mr. Brown's farm is some distance
from here and I don't see how the tramps could
arrive here so soon."

"They could if they had an auto like Captain
Ben's,'" said Laddie.

"Pooh ! Tramps don't have autos. Do they,
Mother?" scoffed Vi.

"Not very often, I imagine," was the an-
swer. "But don't think about the ragged men
any more."

"Do you think they could have taken Cap-
tain Ben's watch?" persisted Laddie.

"No, of course not!" his mother quickly re-
plied. "Captain Ben's watch was lost some-
where near our house, and that's almost a hun-
dred miles from here. Besides, there were no
tramps there."

"Well, anyhow, maybe the tramps took Tad
Munson," suggested Laddie, who seemed
bound to have the ragged men up to some mis-
chief.

"No, poor Tad ran away by himself," Mrs.
Bunker answered. "I feel very sorry for him,
and I hope he is safe at home again by this
time. We must go over to Avalon some day
and find out."

MORE THINGS GONE 173

A little later Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker
came back.

"Did you catch 'em?" asked Russ eagerly.

"No, they had gone. I guess you children
scared them away," replied the marine.

"Were there really tramps there?" asked
Mrs. Bunker.

"Yes, we found a place where they had made
a sort of camp," was the answer of her hus-
band. "They had built a fire and had been
cooking something in empty tomato cans.
Whether they took alarm as we approached, or
left because they heard the children talking, I
don't know; but the place was deserted."

"I'm glad our bungalow isn't near here,"
said Mrs. Bunker.

"Yes, I don't like tramps myself," remarked
Captain Ben. "I'll tell the police of this place,
and have them watch. Lots of cottagers and
bungalow owners will soon be leaving and clos-
ing their places for the winter, and it is then
that tramps often break in and take things.
The police must be told, and they will be on the
watch."

The six little Bunkers, with their father,
mother, and Captain Ben, were soon in the

174 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

motor boat again and on their way to the bun-
galow. The children talked so much about
the ragged men, or the tramps, as they called
them, that at length Mrs. Bunker said very
firmly:

"Now, my dears, please stop! First you
know you'll be dreaming about these poor men,
and then, perhaps, some of you will walk in
your sleep, as the little River boy did."

"It must be fun to walk in your sleep!"
laughed Laddie.

"You did it once, when you were smaller,"
said his father.

"I did!" cried Laddie. "Did I do anything
funny ?"

"Yes," went on Mr. Bunker, laughing. "It
was in the winter, and mother had just got you
a new pair of red mittens. You had played
out in the snow with them, and after supper
you put them behind the stove in the kitchen
to dry.

"Then you went to bed, but later in the even-
ing, when Norah was fixing the fire for the
night, you came tramping down the back
stairs. You frightened Nora, and when she
asked you what you wanted you didn't say a

MORE THINGS GONE 175

word. You just took your little red mittens
and carried them back up the stairs to bed with
you."

"I did!" exclaimed Laddie. "I never knew
it."

"No, when a person walks in his sleep he
generally doesn't know what he is doing," his
father concluded.

That evening Captain Ben gave the children
a box of marshmallow candies, and they had
a fire on the beach to roast them. The chil-
dren thought this was great fun.

The sailor had cut long sticks for the chil-
dren. The sticks were sharply pointed on one
end, and when the fire had burned down, so
there was a good bed of hot, glowing coals,
Mother Bunker said :

"Now each of you put a marshmallow on
the sharp end of your sticks and hold it over
the coals. Be careful not to hold them too
close, and don't let the candies catch fire, as
they sometimes do if you are not careful."

"I know how, 'cause I've roasted marsh-
mallows before," said Rose.

"So've I. And once my candy caught fire,"
remarked Russ.

176 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Oh, look at mine blaze!" suddenly cried
Laddie.

"Take it away from the fire, and blow out
the blaze!" Captain Ben called. "Burned
candies aren't good to eat."

Laddie tried to do as he was told, but he got
so excited that his father had to blow for him.
After that Laddie was more careful. Mother
helped Mun Bun and Margy to roast their
marshmallows, and soon they were all eating
the dainties, seated on flat pieces of drift-
wood gathered along the beach.

The moon rose out of the sea, as it appeared,
and the view was a beautiful one. Then Rose
started a song, and they all joined in the
chorus, while Russ whistled — but first, he had
to swallow a marshmallow he was chewing.

"Oh, I just love it here," said Rose, when the
song was finished.

"Yes, Captain Ben was very good to ask us
to his seashore bungalow," said Daddy Bunker.

"Oh, I'm having just as much fun out of it
as you folks !" declared the marine. "I wanted
a jolly crowd here with me to help me forget
about the war."

They sang more songs, Captain Ben told

MORE THINGS GONE 177

some funny stories, Laddie asked one or two
riddles, and I am afraid to say just how many
questions Vi asked, but it was a large number.
Finally Mother Bunker said:

"It's time we went in, I think. Mun Bun
and Margy are almost asleep. Come, Mun
Bun," she called to the little boy. "Time you
were in by-low land."

"Yes, I want to go to bed," murmured Mun
Bun, who was really almost asleep. He tried
to get up on his feet, off the broad, flat board
on which he had been sitting on the sand while
the marshmallows were being roasted, but it
seemed as though he could not stand up.

"Come, Mun Bun!" called his mother.
"Come along!"

"I — I can't come!" the little fellow an-
swered. "I can't stand on my legs."

"What's the matter? Is your foot asleep?"
asked his father. You know that sometimes
happens if you sit with your legs cramped.

"No, it isn't my feet, but I just can't get
up," went on Mun Bun. "I guess I'm sewed
fast to the board."

"Sewed fast to the board !" cried his mother.
"What does the child mean ?"

178 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"I'm fast !" went on Mun Bun, and when he
did manage to stand up the board, on which
he had been sitting, came up with him, fast to
the seat of his little trousers.

"Oh, it must be caught on a nail !" said Rose.
"You've sat on a nail, Mun Bun !"

"No, I didn't sit on a nail," said the little
fellow. "But I guess it's something else. It's
soft and sticky!"

His mother hurried over toward him. By
the light of the beach fire she looked him over.

"Why, Mun Bun!" cried Mrs. Bunker,
"you've sat in a lot of the marshmallow can-
dies, and that's why the board is sticking fast
to you. Look !" She pulled the piece of drift
wood loose from the little fellow's trousers. A
wad of candy came with it.

"Well, I thought it was something funny,"
said Mun Bun, as the others laughed. "I put
some of my candies on the board and then I
forgot 'em, and I just squashed myself down
on top of 'em, didn't I ?" he asked.

"You surely did!" laughed his father.

However, not much damage was done, as
Mun Bun's trousers were the kind that could
be washed. So after the laughter was over

MORE THINGS GONE 179

and the fire had been put out, so no embers
would scatter in the night and cause a blaze,
the party strolled up to the bungalow and went
to bed, crawling into the bunks which Captain
Ben had built like those on a ship.

Laddie rather hoped he might walk in his
sleep again, but he did not. The night passed
quietly, but when Rose and Russ, who were
the first of the children up, came downstairs
they saw their father, mother and Captain Ben
out on the porch. The marine was rather ex-
cited.

"I was afraid something like this would
happen after I heard about the tramps," he
said.

"What has happened?" asked Russ.

"A number of things have been taken from
Captain Ben's dock," explained Daddy Bunker.
"There have been thieves here in the night, and
a lot of things are gone."

"Most of all I miss my boat," said the
marine. "They took that, too !"

CHAPTER XIX

LOTS OF FUN

"Did the bad tramps take your motor boat?"
asked Rose quickly, as she saw visions of the
many nice rides she hoped to have in the Spray,
as the captain's splendid boat was called, fade
away.

"No, they didn't take the motor boat," an-
swered the marine. "I take good care to lock
that every night, and I fix the motor so no one
not in the secret can start it. But the tramps,
or whoever they were who paid us a midnight
visit, took one of my best rowboats — one I
use when I go fishing."

"Oh, may we go fishing?" asked Vi, who,
with Laddie and the two little ones, had now
come down. The thefts of the midnight
visitors did not trouble her very much, it
seemed.

"Yes, we'll go picnicking and fishing and

180

LOTS OF FUN 181

have lots of fun," Captain Ben answered.
"But first I must see if any one else around
here has missed anything, and we must try to
catch the tramps."

"Do you think it was tramps?" Laddie
wanted to know.

"Well, I can't be sure of the last," remarked
Captain Ben. "But I'm pretty sure it was
tramps of some sort. As I said, they gen-
erally come around at the end of the season,
when cottages and bungalows are being closed.
They take anything they can find. But these
fellows didn't wait for us to leave."

Captain Ben had a talk with some of his
neighbors, who also missed various articles
from around their cottages or docks, but the
captain was the only one from whom a boat
had been taken.

"I guess the tramps walked around the shore
from their camp in the woods," remarked
Daddy Bunker. "They took what they wanted
here, and elsewhere, and then they rowed off
in your boat, Ben."

"I guess that was it," remarked the marine.
"I should have locked up the oars, but I left
one pair out, and now I wish I hadn't. But

182 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

I'll not let those tramps get away if I can help
it."

"What will you do?" asked Russ.

"I'll take after 'em !" the captain said. "Now
we know where they have their camp in the
woods, we know where to find them."

"May I come and help you catch 'em?"
begged the oldest of the six little Bunkers.

"No, indeed !" laughed his father. "Chasing
after tramps isn't the same as roasting marsh-
mallows."

"Well, I'd like to come," Russ continued
wistfully. "I could stand back and throw
stones at 'em, while you and Captain Ben
caught 'em. Please let me come!"

But of course this could not be, and when
the six little Bunkers had been taken for a
walk by their mother, Mr. Bunker, Captain
Ben and some other men started to search for
the tramps who had taken the rowboat.

Russ, Rose and the others had lots of fun.
They played in the sand, waded in the water,
and, after their father and Captain Ben had
come back, the captain said they might go
crabbing.

"Did you get the tramps?" asked Russ, as

LOTS OF FUN 183

he saw the Spray come gliding up to Captain
Ben's dock.

"No, we couldn't even get sight of them,"
was the answer. "I guess they have gone for
good. Don't worry about them. I have an-
other rowboat, though I am sorry to lose that
one."

"You're losing lots of things," commented
Rose. "First you lose your wrist watch and
now your boat is gone."

"I'd rather have that watch back than three
boats," the captain declared. "But now, little
Bunkers, we'll have some fun. We'll go crab-
bing from the end of the pier."

Crabs were plentiful in that part of the bay
near the captain's bungalow, and soon even
Margy and Mun Bun were trying to catch the
creatures which had such big, pinching claws.
Of course Mrs. Bunker helped her two little
children, but Russ and Rose and Vi and Laddie
had crabbed before, and knew all about that
sport.

Each of the six little Bunkers was given a
string with a piece of meat or a fish head on
the end. This bait was dropped into the water
at the side of the pier.

184 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Pretty soon the crabs, crawling along on the
bottom or swimming half way toward the sur-
face, saw or smelled the bait. They went up
to it and grasped it in their big claws, holding
fast with one, while they picked off bits of
meat with the other large claw.

"Oh, I got one !" suddenly whispered Laddie.
"I got one!"

"Pull up easy!" his father said. Mr.
Bunker had a long-handled net. Catching
crabs is not like catching fish. There is no
hook for the crab to bite on and be held fast.
He only holds by his claws, and if the bait is
lifted too far out of the water the crab drops
off. That is why Daddy Bunker had a net
ready.

"Lift your string slowly," said Laddie's
father, and the little boy did this. Inch by inch
the string came up, and Laddie, looking down,
could see the crab clinging by his claws to the
chunk of meat.

"He's a big blue-clawed one!" exclaimed
Laddie.

"Careful now," said Daddy Bunker. "Care-
ful!"

He slipped the net down into the water,

LOTS OF FUN 18*

working it under the crab, which was eating
away at Laddie's bait, not thinking of the
danger of being caught.

Suddenly Daddy Bunker swooped with the
net, dipped it and raised it again from the
water. Something wiggled in the net.

"Did you get him?" shouted Laddie. "Oh,
did you get him ?"

"I did ; and he's a dandy big one S" his father
answered. In the net was the great crab,
clashing his blue claws together. He had let
go of the meat now, and was much surprised
at being disturbed at his meal in this fashion.

Laddie lifted the meat from the net by rais-
ing the string, and then Daddy Bunker turned
the net upside down over a basket. Out fell
the crab, scuttling into a corner of the basket.

There he sat, with his two claws held up,
jeady to pinch any one who might put his
fingers too near him. But no one did this.
Some wet seaweed was put over the crab, and
Laddie tossed back into the water his bait and
string, to wait for another crab. After that
every one had good luck, even Mun Bun and
Margy. Their mother helped them pull up
their crabs off the bottom, and Daddy Bunker

186 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

scooped them into the net. Russ, Rose and
Violet also caught a number of crabs, and
when the basket was full they stopped fishing.

"No use catching any more than we need to
make salad of," said Mother Bunker.

"I don't want any crab salad," said Mun
Bun, shaking his head.

"Well, it isn't good for little boys, any-
how," said Captain Ben. "But why don't you
want any?"

"I don't want to be pinched !" said Mun Bun.

"Oh, he thinks the crabs are alive, with their
claws, in the salad," laughed Vi. "Why, silly,
they take the crabs claws off before they eat
'em," she said.

"Well, maybe they might forget and leave
one claw on, and that would pinch me if I ate
some, but I'm not going to," and Mun Bun
shook his head very decidedly.

The crabs clashed their claws and frothed
at the mouths as they were carried in a basket
up to the bungalow where Mother Bunker
boiled them. Then the meat was picked out,
as though the crabs were nuts, and a nice salad
was made.

This was only one of the jolly days, full of

LOTS OF FUN 187

fun, that the six little Bunkers enjoyed at Cap-
tain Ben's. There seemed to be something
new to do every time the sun rose. Nothing
more was heard of the tramps, though the con-
stables, or policemen, tried to find the ragged
men and get back the captain's boat.

More than once Russ or Rose would wonder
if that runaway boy, Tad Munson, ever
reached his home in Avalon. But there was
no chance to find out, though Mr. Bunker said
he was going over some day and ask.

Though the days were shorter now that fall
was at hand than they had been in the summer
time, when the six little Bunkers were at Uncle
Fred's, there was still plenty of time for fun.
Sometimes Captain Ben took the whole party
off on a fishing trip in his motor boat, and
again they would walk through the woods, tak-
ing their lunches in boxes and baskets.

Letters came from Norah and Jerry Simms,
saying that all was well at home, but no trace
was found of Captain Ben's watch.

One day when it had rained so hard in the
morning that the six little Bunkers had to stay
in the bungalow, it cleared in the afternoon.
Mrs. Bunker let the children go out to play,

188 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

telling them not to get in any boats and not to
go far away from the house.

She was busy writing letters, and she was
just beginning to wonder if the children were
all right, when suddenly Rose came rushing
in, her eyes shining with excitement.

"Oh, Mother !" cried Rose, "Laddie's in and
he can't get out. Laddie's in and he can't get
out, and he's being picked to pieces! You'd
better come quick!"

CHAPTER XX

THE FLOOD

"Rose! what are you saying?" cried Mrs.
Bunker, jumping up out of her chair and start-
ing toward the door of the bungalow.

"You'd better come and get him out,
Mother ! He's in and he can't get out himself,
and he's being picked all to pieces, and Mun
Bun and Margy are crying and — and "

Rose had to stop just here, as she was all out
of breath.

"What has happened, Rose?" Mrs. Bunker,
herself somewhat ' breathless, demanded.
"What has Laddie fallen into ? Where is he ?"

"He's in — but you'd better come and get him
out! He's got a stick, but it isn't much good,
and he's being picked and "

"Being picked, Rose? What do you mean?
Who's picking him, and where is Laddie?"

189

190 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

cried Mrs. Bunker. "I can't go to him till you
tell me where he is."

"Laddie's in the coop with the big, old
rooster that lives next door," explained Rose.
"And he's picking him — I mean the rooster is
picking Laddie, and he can't get out — I mean
Laddie can't get out, and "

But, once again, Rose had to stop to get her
breath, for she talked very fast in her excite-
ment.

"Oh, the rooster!" Mrs Bunker hastened
on. She remembered that Captain Ben had
told them about a savage rooster that was part
of some poultry kept by the man next door.
The rooster was ugly, and would fly at every
one who came near him, and, for this reason,
he was usually kept shut up in the yard, while
the other fowls were allowed to go outside.
When the Bunkers had come to Captain Ben's
to pay a late summer visit they had been
warned about the rooster and told not to go
near his yard, or if, by chance, he ever got out,
they were to run away from him. For though
roosters do not appear to be savage they have
strong wings and sharp spurs and a beak, and
they can harm a small child greatly.

THE FLOOD 191

Holding Rose by the hand, Mrs. Bunker ran
toward the chicken yard of the man next door.
Before she reached it, she could hear a great
commotion there.

A rooster was crowing and flapping his
wings, and Mother Bunker could hear the
voices of Laddie, Mun Bun, Margy and Vio-
let, and Laddie seemed to be making the most
noise. Russ, as it happened, was down at the
dock with his father and Captain Ben, or he
might have helped his little brother.

As Mrs. Bunker turned the corner and came
within sight of the chicken yard she saw what
was happening. Inside the wire fence, which
kept the savage rooster penned up, was Laddie.
Outside, as though looking at some show, were
Mun Bun, Margy and Vi, and they were
screaming with excitement, Vi, every now and
then saying:

"Bang him with the stick, Laddie! Bang
him with the stick !"

This, as his mother could see, Laddie was
trying to do. The small boy had a stick, and
with this he was hitting at the rooster. But
the feathered creature would flap his wings,
jump up in the air out of Laddie's reach and,

193 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN DEN'S

coming down, would try to hit Laddie with
wings, spurs or beak.

Mrs. Bunker lost no time. Letting go of
Rose's hand she rushed into the chicken yard
through the high, wire gate. Then, flapping
her skirts at the rooster, and crying "Shoo!
Shoo !" Mrs. Bunker picked her little boy up in
her arms, and before the surprised fowl could
attack her she was safely outside and the gate
was closed. The old rooster, with an angry
crow, threw himself against the wire netting,
but he would not get out.

Laddie, rather mussed up and with a scratch
on his bare leg that was bleeding, turned
around and faced his enemy as soon as his
mother put him down.

"You bad old rooster you!" cried Laddie.
"If you were a baseball I'd knock you over the
fence !"

"Laddie, how did you come to go into the
rooster's yard ?" asked Mrs. Bunker, when she
saw that the little fellow was not any more
harmed than a few scratches.

"I went after my ball," Laddie answered.
"It got knocked over into the chicken yard
when we were playing, and I went after it."

THE FLOOD 193

"I told him not to," said Rose.

"Well, I thought I could get in and get out
again before the bad old rooster saw me,"
went on Laddie. "So I went in. But when I
wanted to come out after I got the ball, the
gate wouldn't open, and then the bad old
rooster came for me, and I tried to hit him
with my ball stick, and I threw the ball at him,
and I hit him, I guess, but he flapped his wings
and he flew at me and — and "

And then Laddie had to stop for breath, just
as Rose had done.

"Dear me !" exclaimed his mother. "It's too
bad, but of course you should not have gone
into the chicken yard after your ball. Mr.
Wendell told you not to. He would have got
your ball for you. The rooster is afraid of
Mr. Wendell."

"I won't go in any more," said Laddie.
"And I wish Mr. Wendell would get my ball
now, for it's in there."

"I'll ask him to," said Mrs. Bunker. "And
now you had better come into the house and
let me wash you."

"Oh, o-o-oh, look! Laddie's leg's got the
nose bleed!" cried Mun Bun, pointing to the

194 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

red spot on his brother's leg. "Laddie's leg's
got the nose bleed!"

"Well, I'm glad it isn't any worse," said
Mrs. Bunker, as the others laughed at Mun
Bun's funny remark.

Mr. Wendell, who owned the savage rooster,
came over later with Laddie's ball, which he
had got from the chicken yard. Mr. Wendell
said he was sorry for what had happened, and
added :

"I'm going to get rid of that bird! He's
getting older and more saucy every day. The
best place for him is in a potpie. He won't
trouble you any more, Laddie." And the next
.day the rooster was sent away.

The six little Bunkers kept on having good
limes at Captain Ben's. They went out on the
water in his motor boat, and sometimes in a
•sailboat, and on these excursions Russ, at least,
"being the oldest, would look long and earnestly
across the waters of the bay at Grand View.

"What are you looking for?" Rose would
ask him. "Are you playing pirates?"

"No," Russ would answer. "I'm just look-
ing to see if I can find the tramps that took
Captain's Ben's rowboat."

THE FLOOD 195

But the tramps were not found, nor did the
Bunkers learn whether or not Tad Munson
ever ran back home after having run away.
Mrs. Bunker often said they must take a trip
over to Avalon, to inquire about the strange
boy, but something always seemed to happen
to put off the journey. Captain Ben was al-
ways thinking of so many things for the six
little Bunkers to do to have fun.

One afternoon the marine, after having
taken them all for a ride in his motor boat,
said:

"To-morrow, if it's a nice day, we'll go to
that island I was telling you about, and we'll
have a picnic."

"May we take our lunch and stay all day?"
asked Rose, breaking off a song she had started
to sing.

"Yes, it will be a regular picnic lunch," the
captain said. "That is, if it's a fair day."

"Do you think it will rain?" asked Russ,
who had taken out his knife in order to make
a little jumping jack for Mun Bun.

"It might," the captain remarked. "I
don't like the way the sky looks," and he gazed
up at the clouds that were scuttling along

196 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

overhead. "It's about time for the usual storm
we get late in the summer, but it may hold off
a week or more. Anyhow, if it does come, we
can have the picnic when it clears."

The six little Bunkers went to bed that night
after having talked and planned for the picnic
the next day. But alas for their hopes ! The
fears of Captain Ben proved true, and in the
morning it was raining hard.

"Maybe it will clear," said Rose, as she stood
at the window with her nose pressed against
the glass, giving her a funny look.

"I hope it does," said Violet. "Say, Daddy,
what makes the rain wet?" she asked.
"Wouldn't it be nice if the rain was dry, like
snow, and then we could go out without um-
brellas? Wouldn't it be nice?"

"Snow is wet when it melts," her father
said. "And if rain were not wet it would do
no good when it fell. Don't complain. Have
as much fun as you can here in the house. I
don't believe it is going to clear to-day."

And it did not. It rained harder and harder,
but Captain Ben knew how to provide fun for
the six little Bunkers even in a storm. He
had many things of interest in his bungalow,

THE FLOOD 197

and he knew many stories which he told the
children. Every once in a while, though, he
would go to the door and look out, and Mrs.
Bunker saw that the captain's face was grave.

"Do you think something might happen?"
she asked.

"There's a great deal more rain falling than
I like to see," answered Captain Ben.

"Will it make the ocean so high it will wash
us away?" asked Violet, who overheard what
was said.

"No," the captain answered. "All the rain
that ever fell would not make the ocean rise
any higher. But back of us is a small river,
and sometimes, when it rains too much, this
river rises and makes a flood."

"Will it wash this bungalow away?" Russ
asked.

"Oh, no, nothing like that. But it some-
times comes into my cellar," replied Captain
Ben. "However, I don't believe it will this
time. Only I wish it would clear up so I could
take my six little Bunkers to the island on a
picnic."

The six little Bunkers wished this them-
selves, but of course all their wishes could not

198 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

stop the rain from falling, and it pelted down
all day.

Rather earlier the next morning than he was
in the habit of getting up, Russ Bunker was
awakened by hearing voices out in the bun-
galow yard under his window. He quickly
jumped from bed, looked out, and what he saw
surprised him. It was still raining hard, and
the yard seemed to be turned into a small lake
with chicken coops floating around in it. Be-
sides the coops, there were planks and boards,
and Captain Ben and other men were wading
about with long rubber boots on, trying to se-
cure the floating coops of chickens.

"Oh, Mother! Dad!" cried Russ in his
excitement. "Wake up ! The flood has come !"

CHAPTER XXI

AN ISLAND PICNIC

Mr. and Mrs. Bunker did not need the urg-
ing call of Russ to awaken them. They had
already been up more than an hour when the
little boy exclaimed so loudly about the flood.
And it was as he had said. The rain had filled
the little river back of the bungalow, the river
had risen and made a lake of the yards and
fields back of Captain Ben's home.

"What's the matter?" called Rose, who had
been sleeping and dreaming of the island pic-
nic until she heard Russ's voice. "What's
happened?" she asked.

"Come and see," answered Russ.

Rose finished dressing and ran to join her
brother at the window, which looked down into
the yard. Soon Laddie and Vi were with them,
and the four little Bunkers looked out on a
curious scene. The other two little Bunkers

199

200 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

— Mun Bun and Margy — were still asleep in
their beds, or bunks. And it was indeed curi-
ous for Rose, Russ, Vi and Laddie to see Cap-
tain Ben and some others, including Daddy-
Bunker now, wading about and pulling the
floating chicken coops to places of safety.

"Are the chickens going for a ride in their
coops?" asked Vi.

"It looks so," Russ answered. "But I guess
they'd rather not go. Chickens don't like
water."

"I wish that old rooster that flew at me would
get soaking wet !" exclaimed Laddie.

"Anybody that's out in this rain'll get wet,"
observed Russ. "See it pour!"

It was, indeed, a very hard storm, but Cap-
tain Ben and his friends, with Daddy Bunker,
who were helping to save the chickens of the
neighbor next door, had on yellow "slickers,"
or oilskins, as the fishermen and sailors call
them, and with their big rubber boots they
were almost as dry as though under shelter.

"Will the bungalow float away?" asked Vi,
as she looked at the big pond of water which
not only filled Captain Ben's back yard, but
also the yards of his neighbors on either side.

AN ISLAND PICNIC 201

"No, the bungalows will not float away,"
said Mother Bunker, coming along just in time
to hear Vi's question. Mother Bunker thought
perhaps the flood might frighten the children,
but they seemed to think it rather jolly than
otherwise.

"It's like being on a house boat, isn't it?"
said Rose.

"Oh, wouldn't that be fun!" cried Russ.
"We could float all around and live here and
we wouldn't care how hard it rained."

"I'm afraid Captain Ben wouldn't like to see
his bungalow go floating off in the flood," said
Mrs. Bunker, with a smile. "But come down
to breakfast now, and then you may watch the
men save the chickens. Poor things ! I guess
they don't know what to make of it."

"May we go out and help save 'em after we
eat?" asked Laddie.

"No, indeed!" his mother told him. "You
must stay in while it rains. But it may stop
before the day is over."

However, the downpour showed no signs of
letting up. It came down harder than ever,
and when they had finished eating the chil-
dren stood at the windows and looked out.

202 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

The water in the rear yard was not quite up
to the back steps, but when Captain Ben and
Daddy Bunker came in, after having helped
save the chickens, the marine said :

"There is water in my cellar now. If it
keeps on raining there will be more in. But
there's nothing much down there to spoil."

"Will it wash the bungalow away?" asked
Vi.

"Oh, no !" laughed the captain. "We've had
floods like this before, and we never had any
serious trouble. I'm only sorry that it spoils
our island picnic."

"Well, we can have fun here," said Russ.
"We can make believe we're on a house boat,
and that we're sailing to China."

"And can't we go somewhere to get some-
thing to eat?" asked Laddie. "Maybe they
won't have anything I like in China. They
have tea, and I don't like that very much."

"Yes, we'll make believe sail to the North
Pole, and maybe we'll see Santa Claus and he'll
give us something good," laughed Rose, catch-
ing up Margy in her arms and dancing about
the room.

"I want to see Santa Claus !" cried Margy.

AN ISLAND PICNIC 303

"And I want candy !" added Mun Bun.

"Play as much as you like," said Captain
Ben. "It can't rain forever and we'll have our
island picnic as soon as the weather clears."

But it seemed to be going to rain all day.
Inch by inch the water in the back yard crept
nearer the back steps.

"I guess I'd better bring up one of my row-
boats from the dock," said Captain Ben, with
a laugh, as, after dinner, he looked out and
saw the flood coming still higher. "Mr. Wen-
dell will have to row around in a boat to feed
his chickens, I believe."

"Oh, could I come?" begged Russ. "It'll be
lots of fun to feed chickens from a rowboat."

"We don't know for sure that that is what
Mr. Wendell will do," said the marine.

The children played about the bungalow as
best they could until nearly supper time, when
it was still raining. While Mrs. Bunker was
busy with the meal, Rose and Russ went out
on the back porch. The weather was not cold,
and when the children saw how near the large
puddle of water was in the yard, and noticed
that it was not raining quite so hard now, they
each thought of something at the same time.

204 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Let's go in wading!" exclaimed Russ and
Rose together.

"We can put on our raincoats," added Russ.

"And take umbrellas," went on Rose.

Not stopping to ask their mother if they
might, and seeing that Vi and Laddie, Mun
Bun and Margy were playing together in a
distant part of the house, Rose and her brother
got on their storm clothes, took off their shoes
and stockings and soon were wading about in
the shallow part of the flood-pond.

"Isn't it nice ?" laughed Rose, as she splashed
about.

"Lots of fun," said Russ. Then, as he
looked toward the far end of Captain Ben's
flooded yard, Russ uttered a cry of surprise.
"Look, Rose !" he called. "On that board float-
ing down !"

"Oh, it's a cat!" cried Rose.

"And some kittens!" added Russ. "She's
taking them for a ride !"

Surely enough, floating down the flooded
yard on a board was a mother cat and four kit-
tens. But they did not seem to be riding for
pleasure, or having a good time. As the board
boat slowly turned around and around, coming

SLOWLY AND CAREFULLY RUSS PULLED THE BOAT TOWARD HIM.
Six Little Bunkers at Captain Ben's Page 206

AN ISLAND PICNIC 205

nearer and nearer to Russ and Rose, the
mother cried as though asking the children to
come i nd rescue her and her little family. The
little kittens also cried.

"Oh, Russ!" exclaimed Rose. "The poor
things ! Can't we get 'em and take 'em in ?"

"I guess so," Russ answered. "They're
floating down this way. If I had a long stick
I could poke 'em nearer to us."

"Here's a clothes stick," said Rose, taking
one from the back porch. Then she and Russ
waded farther out and waited for the mother
cat and her kittens to come within reach.

Just about this time Mrs. Bunker, who had
finished setting the table, went into the pantry,
and from a window she could look out into the
back yard. She saw what Russ and R.ose were
doing — wading in the pond with their shoes and
stockings off, Rose under an umbrella and Russ
in his rain coat.

"Oh, children! what are you doing?" called
Mrs. Bunker.

"We're trying to save the kittens !" answered
Russ. "I'll have 'em in a minute."

As he spoke he reached out with the clothes
pole Rose had handed him, and he managed to

206 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

touch the board on which crouched the little
family, mother and kittens all mewing now.
Slowly and carefully Russ pulled the board
toward him, and when it was almost within his
reach the mother cat took one of the kittens
up in her mouth. It was as though she knew
they were going to be rescued, and as though
she were getting ready for it.

"Oh, the poor little dears !" exclaimed Rose.
She reached forward to lift off the other three
little kittens, while Russ dropped the pole and
got ready to take care of the mother cat. But
Rose found that to hold three kittens she needed
to let go of the umbrella, so she tossed it on
the porch back of her.

Then she quickly gathered the three half-
drowned kittens in her arms, while Russ took
the mother cat and one kitten, which the mother
cat still held in her mouth. Then, as the board
floated away, the children carried their new
pets into the house.

"Oh, my dears, you're all wet !" cried Mother
Bunker, while Vi and Laddie and Mun Bun
and Margy crowded around to look at the
rescued animals.

"Well, if we hadn't gone out in the rain we

AN ISLAND PICNIC 207

wouldn't have seen the mother cat and her
little ones, and maybe they'd be drowned, so
it's a good thing we went in wading," declared
Russ.

His mother laughed but said nothing. The
cat and kittens were carried near the warm
stove and given milk, and soon they were pur-
ring contentedly.

"Something good came out of the flood, any-
how," said Captain Ben, when he saw the now
happy little family.

"How do you suppose they got on the
board ?" asked Russ, as he rubbed the now soft
and dry fur of one of the kittens.

"I presume the old cat had her family out
in some barn or woodshed," answered the
marine. "When the water began to rise she
crawled with them up as high as she could to
keep dry. But the water kept on rising and
finally floated her off on the board, as though
it were a boat. I don't know where they came
from, but we'll keep them until some one claims
them."

"I'm going to keep one forever and take it
home with me!" declared Margy, who had a
black kitten in her lap.

308 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"So'm I!" added Mun Bun, who was lift-
ing up a black and white kitten.

It rained all that night, but the sun shone
and the storm was over the next day. The
flood did very little real damage, aside from
floating away Mr. Wendell's chicken coops and
filling Captain Ben's cellar with water. And
almost as quickly as it had risen the small river
went down again. The ocean and bay were
not changed by all the rain that had fallen.
The tides rose and fell just the same.

One bright, sunny day, shortly after the
flood, when the old cat and her kittens had
begun to feel quite at home in the bungalow,
Captain Ben came up from the dock where he
and Daddy Bunker had been working on the
motor boat.

"Now the Spray is all ready for a long trip,"
said the sailor. "We shall go on our island
picnic to-morrow."

"Oh, what fun!" laughed the six little
Bunkers.

It was a glorious day for a picnic. They
were all up early and the lunches were packed
in boxes and baskets.

"Are we going to take the mother cat and

AN ISLAND PICNIC 209

her kittens?" asked Margy, when the time
came for the start.

"Oh, indeed no !" said Mrs. Bunker.

"Well, how are they going to get anything
to eat if we leave 'em home here all alone?"
Mun Bun wanted to know.

"I'll put a saucer of milk where they can get
it for their dinner, Margy," answered Captain
Ben. "And we'll be home in time to feed them
this evening."

That satisfied the two smaller children, and,
after a last pat and rub of the purring mother
and kittens, Margy and Mun Bun joined the
others in the motor boat.

Over the sparkling waters of the bay at
Grand View went the Spray. The six little
Bunkers looked toward the island where they
were to spend the day on a picnic, and soon
they reached it.

"Can we go barefoot?" asked Vi, almost as
soon as she had stepped out on the sandy
beach.

"Yes. But be careful about stepping on
sharp shells," her mother cautioned her.

"I'm going to take off my shoes, too!" said
Mun Bun, and soon the four youngest Bunkers

210 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

were wiggling their toes on the soft, warm
sand.

Then such fun as the children had! They
raced about, sailed little wooden boats, built
caves of sand, and threw stones in the water.
Russ gathered shells for his collection, and
Rose picked flowers for her dried flower collec-
tion, while Daddy and Mother Bunker and
Captain Ben sat in the shade and talked or
read books they had brought along.

Rose and Russ had wandered off together
down a woodland path on the island, and Rose
was a little ahead of her brother when he sud-
denly heard her calling.

"Russ, come here!" said Rose in a strange
voice.

Russ hurried forward.

CHAPTER XXII

AFTER THE TRAMPS

Russ saw his sister Rose standing in a little
shady group of trees, looking at some sight
down in a small glen, or little valley.

"What's the matter, Rose?" asked Russ.

"Hush. Not so loud," she whispered back,
holding her hand up to make him keep quiet.
"You'll scare 'em away if you're not careful."

"Scare who?" asked Russ.

"The tramps," Rose answered. "See, there
are the ragged men down there. They're hav-
ing a picnic, like us, I guess."

Russ looked and saw a group of the sort of
men he had always called tramps. They were
ragged and dirty, and were seated about a fire
over which hung a steaming kettle.

"They're cooking just like gypsies," said

Russ. "Maybe they are gypsies, Rose."

"No, they're tramps," went on the little girl.
211

212 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"And I guess they are the same ones that took
Captain Ben's rowboat and the other things off
the dock. And maybe they're the same ones
that took Mrs. Brown's jewelry."

"Oh, maybe they are!" exclaimed Russ.
"What'llwedo?"

"Let's go and tell daddy and mother and
Captain Ben," answered Rose. "They'll know
what to do."

Russ and Rose turned back on the woodland
path. The ragged tramps did not appear to
have seen or heard the children, and a little
later the oldest of the six little Bunkers were
excitedly telling the others on the island beach
what they had seen.

"Tramps, eh?" exclaimed Captain Ben.
"Well, now I have a chance to catch them.
They can't get away from me now, as the island
is too small. Can you show me where they
are, Russ and Rose ? Then you can come back
while your father and I round them up."

"Oh, can't I help catch 'em?" pleaded Russ.

"No, indeed!" his father exclaimed, as he
and Captain Ben got ready to go to where the
ragged men were cooking some sort of meal
in the woods.

AFTER THE TRAMPS 213

"Wait a minute!" called Mother Bunker.
"If you two men are going tramp hunting, that
means I shall be left alone here with the chil-
dred. And if any of the tramps get away, and
come around where we are "

"That's so!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker. "I
didn't think of that. What shall we do?" he
asked Captain Ben. "It will take two of us to
round up the tramps, and yet "

Just then the whistle of a boat sounded down
near the beach where the Bunker party had
landed in the Spray. Captain Ben glanced
down, and as he did so a smile and look of re-
lief came over his face.

"This will make it easy," he said. "There's
Captain Blake and some boys I know. They
were in the war with me. Some of them can
stay with Cousin Amy and the children, and
the rest can come with us and help catch the
tramps."

"I wish I'd been a soldier boy, then I could
help catch tramps, too !" exclaimed Russ.

"Hello, Captain Ben! What are you doing
here?" called Captain Blake, who had brought
a group of boys from a warship to the island
for a day's outing.

214 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"We're having a picnic," replied Captain
Ben. "And you're just in time, boys !" and he
greeted the jolly sailor lads.

"Just in time for lunch, do you mean?"
asked one rosy-cheeked lad, as he danced
around on the sand after leaping from the
motor boat.

"Yes, I guess we have some lunch left, if the
six little Bunkers didn't eat it all up," went on
Captain Ben.

"Six little Bunkers!" repeated Captain
Blake. "That sounds like a troupe of circus
performers."

"Well, they can get up a circus if they have
to!" laughed Captain Ben. "But here they
are," and he pointed to the six little Bunkers,
and introduced Daddy and Mother Bunker as
well.

"But what I meant when I said you were just
in time," went on Captain Ben, "is that we've
discovered a nest of tramps here on the island.
I think they're the same gang that took my
rowboat, and also took some things off the
dock. They're down in a little glen — two of
the Bunkers saw them — I want you boys to
help me catch 'em !"

AFTER THE TRAMPS 818

"Whoopee! That's what we'll do! All
aboard!" cried one of the sailor boys.

"But you can't all go," went on Captain
Ben. "Some of you must stay with Mrs.
Bunker and the children in case the tramps
scatter and some of them run this way."

"I could drive 'em away, but they won't let
me!" complained Russ, who felt quite indig-
nant that he was not to be allowed to take part
in the chase.

"I'll tell you what we'll do, sonny!" said
Captain Blake, with a smile. "You and I and
one of the sailor boys will stay here as a sort
of home guard. The others can go and catch
the tramps. And we'll have an extra piece of
cake, maybe, for staying at home instead of
having the fun of the chase."

"Yes, you shall each have two pieces of
cake," promised Mrs. Bunker.

"And I want some!" added Mun Bun, who
was generally to be heard from when there was
anything like cake to eat.

So it was arranged. Captain Ben, Daddy
Bunker and some of the sailor boys went off
over the hill, very quietly, toward the place
where Rose and Russ had seen the tramps

216 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

around their camp fire. Captain Blake and a
big, hearty, strong sailor boy remained behind
as a guard for Mother Bunker and the six little
Bunkers. Captain Blake was a jolly man, and
he soon had the children laughing with his
funny stories.

"Do you know any riddles?" asked Laddie,
after a while.

"Well, I might think of one," said the cap-
tain. "I'll ask you this : What is the longest
word in the world ?"

"If I had a dictionary here maybe I could
find it," said Russ.

"You don't need a dictionary for this," went
on the seaman. "I think I'll have to tell you.
The longest word is smiles."

"Why, that's only a little, short word," said
Rose, smiling herself.

"But isn't there a mile between the first and
the last letter?" Captain Blake asked. "You
see, first there is a letter S. Then comes the
word mile, and then there's the last S — a mile
between the two, and I call that a very long
word."

"Oh, how funny!" laughed Rose. "That's
a good riddle."

AFTER THE TRAMPS 217

"And I know another," said Laddie. "What
is it that's got only one eye and carries a long
train in it?"

"What is it that has only one eye and carries
a long train in it?" repeated the captain. "Do
you mean a train of cars?"

"No, I mean a long train — like that on a
lady's dress," Laddie explained. "It's a
needle!" he said quickly, before any one had
time to guess. "A needle has one eye and when
there is thread in the eye the thread makes a
long train."

"Ha! Ha! That's pretty good!" laughed
the captain. Then he told more stories, and
the sailor with him sang some jolly sea songs
and the six little Bunkers were having a fine
time.

"I wonder if daddy and Captain Ben are
catching the tramps," said Mrs. Bunker, after
a while, when it seemed as though it was time
for the searching party to return.

Suddenly there was a crackling in the bushes.

"Here comes some one now," said Russ.

The noise in the bushes grew louder, and
there was the sound of several voices. Cap-
tain Blake, who had been having fun with Mun

218 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Bun and Margy on the grass, rose to his feet
and picked up a stout club. The other sailor
did the same, and they stood in front of Mrs.
Bunker and the children, looking in the direc-
tion of the noise.

Russ moved up as though to take his place
beside the two protectors, but his mother called
to him to come back to her, where Rose and the
other little Bunkers were now gathered.

Then they all waited to see who should come
through the bushes. Would it be Daddy
Bunker and Captain Ben returning with the
tramps they had caught, or the ragged men
themselves, scattering and running away ?

CHAPTER XXIII

THE OLD SATCHEL

"I see Captain Ben!" suddenly called Rose,
pointing toward the bushes which could now
be seen to be moving.

"I'm glad of that!" exclaimed Mrs. Bunker,
and Captain Blake and his sailor friend dropped
the clubs they had taken up.

"Did they catch any tramps ?" asked Laddie.

"I don't see any," replied Russ.

And as his father and the others of the party
came into view, pushing their way through the
bushes, it was noticed that they had not cap-
tured any of the ragged men.

"What's the matter?" asked Captain Blake.
"Did they get away from you?"

"Yes," answered Captain Ben. "The rascals
skipped out. They must have heard us com-
ing and have run down to the beach on the

219

220 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

other side of the island. There the tramps
piled into a boat and went away."

"What sort of boat?" asked the seaman who
had come with the jolly sailors.

"It was a motor boat," answered Daddy
Bunker. "But they had a rowboat also, towing
behind."

"And I think it was the same rowboat they
took from me," went on Captain Ben. "And
I shouldn't be a bit surprised if they had taken
the motor boat, also."

"Oh, they must be terribly bad men!" ex-
claimed Vi, in such a funny voice that every
one laughed.

"They are bad," declared Captain Ben.
"That's why I want to catch them. They'll be
hanging around here all winter if we don't
drive them away, and they'll be taking things
that don't belong to them. Captain Blake, will
you help me?"

"Help you in what, Captain Ben ?" asked the
other captain, while the six little Bunkers
looked and listened.

"Will you help me catch those tramps ? We
can take after them in our motor boats. I saw
which way they went. I believe they're head-

THE OLD SATCHEL 221

ing for Oyster Cove. We can round them up
there. Will you come ?"

"I most assuredly will!" exclaimed Captain
Blake.

"And we'll come, too!" shouted the sailor
boys.

"Then can't I come?" asked Russ. "I could
steer a boat or throw stones or — something!"

"I'm afraid this will be no place for little
boys," answered Captain Ben. "We might as
well hurry," he added. "I'm sorry to end our
island picnic," he remarked to Mrs. Bunker,
"but we must get those tramps."

"Do you want me and the children to stay
here on the island while you men go down to
Oyster Cove and capture the tramps?" asked
the mother of the six little Bunkers. "If you
do "

"Oh, no! I wouldn't think of that," an-
swered Captain Ben. "As I said, I hate to spoil
the picnic, but I think it will be best for you to
take the children back to my bungalow. Then
Captain Blake and I will go with the sailors,
catch the tramps, and take away the things the
ragged men stole."

"Perhaps that will be best," said Mrs.

222 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Bunker. "We have had a good time here, and
it is almost time to go back home."

There was so much excitement going on, and
such a prospect of more that might happen,
that the six little Bunkers did not at all mind
leaving the island. They were always ready
for something new, were the six little Bunkers,
and this chase after the ragged tramps was
decidedly something new.

"If you catch 'em will you bring 'em back
for us to see?" asked Vi, as the two parties
prepared to leave the island.

"No, I think we'll take them right to the
lockup," answered her father. "But come now,
gather up everything, and we'll start back. If
we let the tramps get too far away it will be
hard to catch them again."

Soon the six little Bunkers were once more
in Captain Ben's boat, and on their way across
the bay to the bungalow. Captain Blake and
his sailor boys went at once in the direction of
Oyster Cove, there to round up the tramps if
possible.

"I'll come and join you as soon as I leave
the six little Bunkers safe," Captain Ben called
to his friend Captain Blake.

THE OLD SATCHEL 223

'Who'll take care of us after you and daddy-
go back to get the tramps ?" Rose asked, as the
boat neared the dock.

"There will be plenty of neighbors around,"
her mother answered.

Word soon spread through the little colony
at Grand View that the tramps, who had stolen
many things during the late summer, might
soon be caught, and several men joined Cap-
tain Ben and Daddy Bunker in the motor boat
that was to go to Oyster Cove.

"But there will be no danger from the
tramps," remarked Mr. Wendell, the next door
neighbor, whose rooster had tried to fight
Laddie that time. "The tramps must know
they are being chased, and they'll get as far
away as they can."

"I hope they don't get so far away that
daddy and Captain Ben can't catch 'em!" ex-
claimed Russ.

Russ, Rose and the others stood on the pier
and waved their hands to Captain Ben and
their father, who departed in the motor boat
Spray, together with several volunteers who
wanted to help catch the tramps. Then the six
little Bunkers went up the hill to the bungalow.

224 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

They were tired after their outing on the
island, and for once they did not tease their
mother to provide them with some amusement.

Margy and Mun Bun found two of their
dolls and were satisfied to sit down and play
with them for a time. Laddie found a picture
book and took it off in a corner. Vi got out
her sewing basket and began work on a dress
for her doll. But as she had been working on
this same dress all summer, and as it was not
nearly finished yet, it seemed as if her poor
doll would have to go out and buy something
to wear, Russ said.

Russ had brought in some wood for the fire
his mother wanted to start in the kitchen stove
and Rose was getting ready to help set the
table. When these tasks were done Margy and
Mun Bun came up to Rose and Russ who were
sitting down, resting.

"You please be doctor," begged Mun Bun of
Russ.

"And you be nurse. Our babies are sick,"
said Margy to Rose.

"What in the world do you mean?" asked
Russ.

"You be doctor and bring medicine to the

THE OLD SATCHEL 225-

dolls in a satchel," went on Margy, pulling at
the sleeve of Russ. "I'll show you where the
satchel is. You put medicine in, and come and
be doctor."

"Oh, she wants you to get a satchel and pre-
tend you're a doctor and bring medicine like
Dr. Gage brings to our house," said Rose.
"And they want me to be a nurse. We'll play
with you a little while, until supper is ready,
Margy," she promised her little sister.

"And Russ be doctor," begged Mun Bun.

"Yes, Russ'll be doctor," went on Rose.
"Get that old valise we brought from home
with us," she went on, "and make believe it has
a lot of pills and medicine in it, Russ. We'll
keep Mun Bun and Margy quiet while mother
finishes getting supper," she whispered to her
big brother.

"All right, I'll be the doctor," promised the
oldest Bunker boy. "Where's the valise?"

Rose showed him where, put back in a hall
closet, was an old satchel in which some odds
and ends had been put the last minute for the
automobile trip from home. With this in his
hand, and pretending to be a doctor, Russ
walked up to the playhouse Mun Bun and

226 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Margy had made for themselves in one corner
of the living room.

"Which is the sick baby?" asked Russ, just
as Dr. Gage might have done. He looked at
the dolls which Mun Bun and Margy had.

"They're both sick," said Margy, "and they
both want a lot of medicine."

"Well, I'll give one some red pills and the
other some green," said "Dr. Russ." He
dropped his satchel of make-believe medicine
to the floor and was about to look at Margy's
doll, when Rose gave a startled cry and pointed
to the old satchel.

"Look! Look!" she cried. "See what was
in the old valise!"

CHAPTER XXIV

TAD S NEWS

Margy almost dropped her sick doll, she was
so surprised at the astonishment in the voice
of Rose and at the manner in which her sister
pointed toward the old valise. Mun Bun, too,
looked at the leather satchel on the floor, and
Russ, who had dropped it, stared with wide-
opened eyes at the sight which met his gaze.

"Look! Look!" went on Rose. "There it
is!"

"What?" asked Margy.

"Captain Ben's watch — the gold wrist watch
he lost when he was helping us pack to come
here," went on Rose. "It just fell out of the
old valise Russ dropped.

"Did it?" asked Russ, who was as much sur-
prised as was Rose.

"Yes," went on Rose, "it did. As soon as

227

228 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

you dropped the valise that little pocket on the
side opened and the watch came out. There
it is!"

And there, surely enough, was Captain
Ben's missing watch — the one he thought so
much of because it was given to him by a sol-
dier in France.

"What's the matter?" asked Mother
Bunker, coming in from the kitchen. She had
heard the cries of excitement among the chil-
dren.

"Look what we found — Captain Ben's
watch — it was in the old valise — it fell out
when Russ dropped it — dropped the valise, I
mean," answered Rose. "He was playing doc-
tor, because Mun Bun's doll and Margy's were
sick. Oh, Mother! won't Captain Ben be
glad?"

"Yes, I think he will," answered Mrs.
Bunker, as she picked the watch up off the
floor. The timepiece was not damaged, and
when Mrs. Bunker had wound it and given it
a little shake, it ticked off merrily, though of
course it had to be set to indicate the proper
hour.

"Well, I never knew Captain Ben's watch

TAD'S NEWS 229

was in that old valise when I took it to play
doctor," said Russ.

"And no one else imagined it was there,"
said his mother. "The watch must have slipped
from Captain Ben's wrist when he was help-
ing us pack, and it fell into the side pocket of
the satchel. Then it was strapped shut and
put with our luggage. We never had occasion
to open the valise side pocket, and of course
we never thought of looking in there. Only
by accident could it have been found."

"I'm glad we found it," said Russ. "Cap-
tain Ben'll be glad, too."

There was so much excitement over finding
the missing watch that all thought of playing
doctor, nurse and sick dolls passed. Vi and
Laddie had to hear the story all over again.

"Then the tramps didn't take Captain Ben's
watch after all, did they ?" asked Vi, when she
and Laddie had looked several times in the
side pocket of the valise, whence the watch had
slid when Russ dropped the satchel.

"We never thought tramps had taken it,"
said her mother. "Captain Ben missed his
watch long before we heard about the tramps."

Speaking of tramps naturally brought the

230 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

talk to the chase then under way, and the chil-
dren were wondering whether their father,
Captain Ben, Captain Blake and the others
would be lucky in the pursuit. It was just get-
ting dusk when steps were heard on the bun-
galow porch, and in came Daddy Bunker and
Captain Ben. They looked tired and dis-
couraged.

"Did you catch the tramps?" cried Russ
eagerly.

"No/' and his father shook his head. "They
had too much of a start on us."

"And they got away," added Captain Ben.
"We were unlucky to-day."

"But we were lucky here!" exclaimed Rose,
with sparkling eyes.

"What do you mean?" asked the marine,
looking from one of the six little Bunkers to
the other. Something in their manner told
him that the unusual had happened.

"See if you can guess!" proposed Laddie.
"Make believe it's a riddle, and guess, Captain
Ben."

"Hum! Let me see!" and the marine pre-
tended to be thinking very hard. "Is it "

"It's your watch!" burst out Mun Bun.

TAD'S NEWS 231

"We were playing side dolls, and Russ was
the doctor and he had a valise and "

"Oh, what'd you tell him for? Why didn't
you let him guess?" asked Laddie.

But the secret was out now.

"My watch! My wrist watch! Do you
mean you found my watch that the French
soldier gave me?" cried Captain Ben.

"Yes, here it is," and Mrs. Bunker handed
it to her relative, telling him how it had been
found.

"Well, I never !" exclaimed Captain Ben. "I
had given that up as lost forever. I should
say you did have luck here, even if we were
not lucky in catching the tramps."

"So they got away, did they?" asked
Mother Bunker, after Captain Ben had fas-
tened his watch on his wrist.

"Yes. In the motor boat, which they must
have stolen, they were too speedy for us.
Then, too, they had a good start. But we have
not given up. Word has been sent to the police
all around here and the men may be caught
any moment. They won't bother us again,
that's sure."

"I'm glad of that," said Mother Bunker.

232 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

Then they all sat down to supper and talked
over what had happened during the day.
There was plenty about which to talk, from the
picnic early in the day, to the sighting of the
tramps by Rose, the chase after them and the
finding of the captain's watch. As he had
promised, Captain Ben divided the five dollars
reward between Rose and Russ.

But all days must come to an end, and this
one finally did. The six little Bunkers went
up to bed and soon were sleeping, tired out
with the many adventures.

It was just after breakfast the next morn-
ing when Russ, who was bringing in some
wood for the kitchen fire, heard some one com-
ing up the front walk and looked to see who
it was.

"Why— why!" Russ exclaimed. "It's Tad
—Tad Munson !"

"Yes, that's who I am," was the answer.
"And I've a lot of news for you. Where's
your father and Captain Ben?"

"They're in the house," said Russ. "But
what's the matter? What news have you to
tell?"

"You wait and you'll hear !" promised Tad,

TAD'S NEWS 233

for it was, indeed, he. But. he was much
changed. He was clean and well dressed. In-
stead of old, torn shoes he had on nice, shiny
ones.

Just then Captain Ben and Daddy Bunker
came out on the porch. They seemed surprised
at the sight of the former runaway boy.

"He's got news for us, Daddy !" cried Russ,
dropping his armful of wood.

CHAPTER XXV

THE CAPTURE

"Well, Tad," said Mr. Bunker, when he
saw the "runaway boy," which was the name
he was often called, "it has been some time
since we saw you last."

"Yes, Mr. Bunker, it has," went on Tad.
"I'm sorry I caused you so much trouble."

"Oh, you didn't cause us so much trouble as
you did your father," said Captain Ben. "He
came here one night, very late, inquiring about
you, and "

"Yes, I know," interrupted Tad. "And I'm
sorry I made him so much trouble. But it's all
right now, and I'm never going to run away
again. That's what I came over to tell you."

"Is this the news ?" asked Russ, and he began
to feel a little disappointed.

"No, it isn't all the news," Tad went on.
"After I ran away, and you brought me part

234

THE CAPTURE 235

of the way back, I was going to take the trolley-
car to my home in Avalon, just as I said I
would. But I got sort of scared after I went
away from you. I was afraid to go home, so
I didn't."

"Oh, so that's why your father came here
looking for you!" exclaimed Daddy Bunker.
"We often wondered if you ever did go back
home."

"Yes, I went a few days after that," Tad
said. "And my father was good to me, and
when I told him how kind you folks were to
me, he said I must come right over and thank
you, and let you know I was safe at home
again.

"Well, I was going to, but I kept putting it
off. But at last my father and mother decided
I must come, so when I got some new clothes
and new shoes I decided to come, and here I
am. I just came in on the trolley car."

"Did you come to tell us about your new
shoes and new suit?" Rose asked.

"Oh, I have more news than that !" exclaimed
Tad. "Do you want to know where to find
those tramps?" he asked suddenly.

"Tramps? What do you know about the

236 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

tramps ?" asked Captain Ben. "Have they been
over in Avalon, too, taking things?"

"No, I don't think so," answered Tad. "But
we heard, over there, about a gang of tramps
being chased off an island and down toward
Oyster Cove. And just now, when I was get-
ting off the trolley car down by the railroad
station, I saw a lot of tramps hiding in the
bushes."

"You did?" cried Daddy Bunker. "What
were they doing there ?"

"Just hiding," answered Tad. "I was near
enough to hear what they were saying, and
they spoke about a motor boat. That's what
made me think maybe they were the same
tramps you chased."

"I wouldn't be a bit surprised!" exclaimed
Captain Ben. "This is great news, Tad. Come
on!" he called to Daddy Bunker. "We'll get
some policemen and round up these fellows.
We'll capture them, and send them to jail.
Then maybe I'll get back my rowboat they
took, and if we find the motor boat we can give
that back to whoever owns it."

"Maybe the tramps are hiding in the bushes
to steal a train of cars," suggested Laddie.

THE CAPTURE 237

"They couldn't carry off a train of cars,
that's sure," said Captain Ben, with a laugh.
"Probably they're hiding there so they can get
aboard a freight train when one stops. I guess
they want to get away from here, and they
think a freight train will take them away so
they won't be captured. But we'll get after
them. Just where did you see the ragged men,
Tad?"

The former runaway boy told, and Captain
Ben called the police station on the telephone
and asked that two or three policemen be sent
to his bungalow. From there the capture
party could start for the tramps' hiding place
in the bushes by the railroad.

"I'll go along with you and show you the
place," Tad offered.

The policemen soon arrived at Captain Ben's
bungalow, and then he and Daddy Bunker set
out, with Tad to lead the way to where the
ragged men were hiding.

"Oh, Mother, can't we go and see the tramps
run?" begged Rose.

"Yes!" added Russ. "They won't chase us
with the policemen there to make 'em be good !
Let's go!"

238 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Well, we'll go and look on from a distance,"
said Mrs. Bunker. So, with the six little
Bunkers in charge she started for the railroad.

It was all over in a little while. Daddy-
Bunker, Captain Ben, and the police officers
silently made their way to the place where the
ragged men were hiding. They surrounded
it, so the tramps could not get away, and soon
the vagrants were all captured. They did not
fight at all, for they seemed to be cowards.

One by one they were led out, pushed into
a wagon and taken to jail. Of course the six
little Bunkers did not go near the jail. But
they had seen the tramps caught and this was
enough for them. Tad was warmly thanked
by Captain Ben, Daddy Bunker and others for
telling where the troublesome men might be
caught.

"Did you get your rowboat ?" asked Russ of
Captain Ben, when the marine came "back after
the tramps were locked up.

"They didn't exactly have it with them,"
laughed Captain Ben, "but I made them tell
me where it was hidden. And the motor boat
is there also. It was stolen from a friend of
mine. He'll be glad to get it back — as glad as

THE CAPTURE 239

I am to get my rowboat and my wrist watch —
only, of course, the tramps didn't have that.
But the ragged men will not trouble any one
for a long time, now."

"Did any of them have Mrs. Brown's
jewelry?" asked Mother Bunker.

"Not as far as we could learn," her husband
answered. "These tramps said they were never
near the Brown place."

"That's too bad. I'm sorry, I mean, that
Mrs. Brown won't get back her rings and
things," Mother Bunker went on. "But I'm
glad these men have been captured. Now we
don't need to worry about them, for the chil-
dren have been a little frightened, I think."

While it may have been true that these par-
ticular tramps were not the ones that robbed
Mrs. Brown, yet it was some like them, as the
Bunkers learned later. For another gang of
ragged men were arrested not far from Grand
View, and some of these had a few of the
trinkets taken from the farmhouse. These
were given back to Mrs. Brown, and, later still,
more of her jewelry was recovered from other
tramps, so that most of her ornaments were
restored.

240 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

As for Tad, he seemed to have got all over
his runaway habits. He admitted he had been
a very foolish little boy, and said he never was
going to do anything like that again. Often
after the tramps had been caught and sent
away, Tad came over to play with the six little
Bunkers. One day they had quite an ad-
venture.

Back of Captain Ben's bungalow was a barn.
That is, it had been a barn at one time, but
after Captain Ben bought the place, and had
an automobile in place of a horse, he did not
use much of the stable, needing only room
enough for his car. But the barn made a fine
place for the six little Bunkers to play, and one
afternoon, when Tad had called, Russ said :

"Let's go out to the barn and have some
fun!"

"All right!" Tad agreed.

Rose had gone for a walk with her mother
and Margy, but Mun Bun and Laddie remained
behind to play with Russ and Tad. Daddy
Bunker and Captain Ben had gone fishing in
the motor boat, and they went out quite a dis-
tance in the bay.

"Let's play hide and go seek!" proposed

THE CAPTURE 241

Tad, and this was agreed to. It was Tad's
turn to close his eyes and give the others a
chance to slip into various hiding places so
Tad could not find them after he had opened
his eyes.

"Ready or not I'm coming !" cried Tad, when
he had counted up to five hundred, by fives.

"Wait a minute. I isn't hided yet!" cried
Mun Bun, and Laddie, who had picked out a
good place behind a pile of boards on the first
floor of the old barn, saw his little brother
going up the stairs that led to a loft over the
place where the horses used to be stabled.

"Don't fall, Mun Bun!" called Laddie in a
whisper.

"I won't!" answered the little fellow.

"I'll count a hundred more," offered Tad,
and this time, when he called "ready or not I'm
coming," no one objected. They were all well
hidden.

When Tad went away from "home," to look
for Russ and the others, Laddie managed to
slip in "free," so he did not have to be "it."
Russ also tried it, but he was not so lucky, and
he was "spied" by Tad, and it was Russ's turn
to blind his eyes next.

242 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"Where's Mun Bun?" asked Russ, as Tad
beat him to the "home."

"He went up there," and Laddie pointed to
the stairs.

"Oh, he oughtn't go up there!" exclaimed
Russ. "He might fall. Come on down, Mun
Bun," he called.

"All right," was the answer, faint and far
away. There was the sound of footsteps on
the loft floor overhead and then suddenly the
noise of a fall, and the voice of Mun Bun burst
out crying.

"Oh, I failed! I failed!" wailed the little
fellow. "I failed down a hole, and I can't get
out!"

At the same time there was the sound of
shoes kicking on wood, and the sound came
from one of the mangers, or the place in the
old horse stalls where the animals were given
their feed.

"He must have fallen down through the
place where they put the hay !" cried Russ, and
he and Tad hurried to the stall. Just as they
reached it Mun Bun stood up in the manger,
which was like a long, narrow box. He was
covered with wisps of hay, and he was crying,

THE CAPTURE 243

but a quick look showed that he was not hurt.

"What happened?" asked Russ, as he lifted
his little brother down out of the manger.

"Oh, I was hiding upstairs, and I walked
across the floor, and then I failed down a hole,
and I thought I couldn't get out, but I did,"
said Mun Bun.

"I see how it happened," remarked Tad.
"There's a hole cut through the floor upstairs,
and a sort of chute that comes down into the
horse stall manger. They used to shove hay-
down that chute, and there must have been
some still stuck in it. Mun Bun fell down the
hole, and he wasn't hurt on account of the
hay."

So, that was how it had happened. Mun
Bun had stepped into the hay chute, and, there
being a wad of old fodder still in it, he had
been dropped down gently, almost as though
down a dumb waiter shaft, into the manger
below.

"Well, you didn't find me, anyhow, I corned
down myself," said Mun Bun when he had
stopped crying and had been brushed off by
Russ and Tad.

Then the boys played hide and seek a little

244 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

longer, but Mun Bun did not again go up into
the loft of the barn to play.

When the game was over they went back
to the house. Mun Bun said he was hungry,
and Russ admitted that he, too, could eat some
bread and jam.

"If mother's there she'll give us some," he
said to Tad. "But if she isn't we can get it
ourselves."

However, Mrs. Bunker had returned from
her walk with Rose, Margy and Vi, and she
gave the boys and girls, including the visitor,
some generous slices of bread, spread thick
with raspberry jam which she had made from
berries the children picked on Captain Ben's
place.

Just as the six little Bunkers finished this
late afternoon lunch, there was a shouting
down at the dock. At first Mrs. Bunker
thought something had happened, but when
she saw her husband and Captain Ben getting
out of the motor boat, holding up long strings
of fish they had caught, she knew the reason
for the joyful noise.

"Oh, what dandy fish !" cried Russ. "I wish
I could catch some!"

THE CAPTURE 245

'We'll take you along next time," promised
his father.

Laddie, who had gone to the boat to look in
and see if any more fish were there, suddenly
uttered a cry of pain.

"Oh, did you get stuck on a hook?" ex-
claimed his mother.

"No, but a big crab bit me!" cried Laddie,
and he danced around with a crab clinging to
his finger until his father took off the pinching
creature.

"This crab took told of the bait on my hook,"
explained Mr. Bunker, "and he clung on until
I lifted him into the boat. I forgot he was
there. Never mind, Laddie, he didn't make
your finger bleed." For the crab had taken
hold of the little boy's finger at a thick part,
and no blood was drawn.

The six little Bunkers looked at the fish
their father and Captain Ben had caught, and
a little later some of the fish were fried for
supper.

"Oh, this is the nicest place we were ever
at," said Rose with a happy little song, when
the time came for Tad to take the trolley car
back to Avalon.

246 SIX LITTLE BUNKERS AT CAPTAIN BEN'S

"I wish we could always have two vacations
every year," remarked Russ. "I want to make
another boat before we go back home."

"And I want to think of another riddle,"
Laddie exclaimed.

"When are we going back? Will school
open soon? Can we come here again? What
are we going to do to-morrow?" asked Vi.

"Oh, what a lot of questions!" laughed her
mother. "We are not going back right away.
We shall still have some fun at Captain Ben's."

And so we will leave the six Little Bunkers,
hoping to meet them again amid new scenes.

THE END

THE BUNNY BROWN SERIES

By LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of the Popular "Bobbsey Twins" Books

Wrapper ant text illustrations drawn by
FLORENCE ENGLAND NOSWORTHY

12mo. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING

These stories by the author of the ' 'Bobbsey Twins' ' Books
are eagerly welcomed by the little folks from about five to ten
years of age. Their eyes fairly dance with delight at the lively
doings of inquisitive little Bunny Brown and his cunning, trust-
ful sister Sue.

Bunny was a lively little boy, very inquisitive. When he did
anything, Sue followed his leadership. They had many adven-
tures, some comical in the extreme.

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON GRAND-
PA'S FARM

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE PLAYING
CIRCUS

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CAMP
REST-A-WHILE

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT AUNT
LU'S CITY HOME 4

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS' SISTER "SUE IN THE BIG
WOODS

.BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE ON AN AUTO
TOUR

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AND THEIR
SHETLAND PONY

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE GIVING A
SHOW

BUNNY BROWN AND HIS SISTER SUE AT CHRIST-
MAS TREE COVE

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York

THE I BOBBSEY TWINS' BOOKS

For Little, Men' and y Women

By LAURA" LEE,' HOPE

Author of "The Bunny>Brown'i«Series>Etc.

12tno. DURABLY BOUND. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING

Copyright publications which cannot be obtained else-
where. Books that charm the hearts of the little ones,
and of which they never tire.

THE BOBBSEY TWINS

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE COUNTRY

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT THE SEASHORE

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SCHOOL

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT SNOW LODGE

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON A HOUSEBOAT

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT MEADOW BROOK

THE BOBBSEY TWINS AT HOME

THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN A GREAT CITY

THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON BLUEBERRY

ISLAND
THE BOBBSEY TWINS ON THE DEEP BLUE

SEA
THE BOBBSEY TWINS IN THE GREAT WEST

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS SERIES

By CAPTAIN QUINCY ALLEN

The outdoor chums are four wide-awake lads, sons of
wealthy men of a small city located on a lake. The boys
love outdoor life, and are greatly interested in hunting, fish-
ing, and picture taking. They have motor cycles, motor
boats, canoes, etc., and during their vacations go everywhere
and have all sorts of thrilling adventures. The stories give
full directions for camping out, how to fish, how to hunt wild
animals and prepare the skins for stuffing, how to manage a
canoe, how to swim, etc. Full of the spirit of outdoor life.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS

Or The First Tour of the Rod, Gun and Camera Club.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE LAKE
Or Lively Adventures on Wildcat Island.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE FOREST
Or Laying the Ghost of Oak Ridge.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON THE GULF
Or Rescuing the Lost Balloonists.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AFTER BIG GAME
Or Perilous Adventures in the Wilderness.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS ON A HOUSEBOAT
Or The Rivals of the Mississippi.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS IN THE BIG WOODS
Or The Rival Hunters at Lumber Run.

THE OUTDOOR CHUMS AT CABIN POINT
Or The Golden Cup Mystery.

12mo. Averaging 240 pages. Illustrated. Handsomely
bound in Cloth.

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL
HIGH SERIES

By GERTRUDE W. MORRISON

[ i ' ■

12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATE!. UfUTOftM STYLE OF BINOMBe

Here is a series full of the spirit of high school life of to-
day. The girls are real flesh-and-blood characters, and we fol-
low them with, interest in school and out There are many
contested matches on track and field, and on the water, as well
as doings in the classroom and on the school stage. There is
plenty of fun and excitement, all clean, pure and wholesome,

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH
Or Rivals for all Honors.

A stirring tale of high, school life, full of fun, with a touch
of mystery and a strange initiation.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON LAKE LUNA
Or The Crew That Won.

Telling of water sports and fan galore, and of fine times In camp,

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH AT BASKETBALL
Or The Great Gymnasium Mystery.

Sere we have a number of thrilling contests at basketball and In
addition, the solving of a mystery which had bothered the high
echool authorities for a long while,

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON THE STAGE
Or The Play That Took the Prize.

How the girls went in for theatricals and how one of them wrote
a play which afterward was mad* over for the professional stage
and brought in some much-needed money.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH ON TRACK AND

FIELD
Or The Girl Champions of the School League

This story takes in high school athletics in their most approved
land up-to-date fashion. Full of fun and excitement.

THE GIRLS OF CENTRAL HIGH IN CAMP
Or The Old Professor's Secret

The girls went camping on Acorn Island and had a delightful
time at boating, swimming and picnic parties.

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New York

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS
SERIES

By LAURA LEE HOPE

Author of "The Bobbsey Twins Series."

12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATED. UNIFORM STYLE OF BINDING

The adventures of Ruth and Alice DeVere. Their father,
a widower, is an actor who has taken up work for the
"movies." Both girls wish to aid him in his work and visit
various localities to act in all sorts of pictures.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS

Or First Appearance in Photo Dramas.

Having lost his voice, the father of the girls goes into the movies
and the girls follow. Tells how many "parlor dramas" are filmed-

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT OAK FARM
Or Queer Happenings While Taking Rural Plays.

Full of fun m the country, the haps and mishaps of taking film
plays, and giving an account of two unusual discoveries.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS SNOWBOUND
Or The Proof on the Film.

A tale of winter adventures in the wilderness, showing how the
photo-play actors sometimes suffer.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS UNDER THE PALMS
Or Lost in the Wilds of Florida.

How they went to the land of palms, played many parts in dramas
before the camera; were lost, and aided others who were also lost.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT ROCKY RANCH
Or Great Days Among the Cowboys.

All whe have ever seen moving pictures of the great West will
want_ to know just how they are made. This volume gives every detail
and is full of clean fun and excitement.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS AT SEA
Or a Pictured Shipwreck that Became Real.

A thrilling account of the girls' experiences on the water.

THE MOVING PICTURE GIRLS IN WAR PLAYS
Or The Sham Battles at Oak Farm.

The girls play important parts in big battle scenes and have plenty
of hard work along with considerable fum.

Grossf.t & Dunlap, Publishers, New York

^THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS
SERIES'

By VICTOR APPLETON

I- 12mo. BOUND IN CLOTH. ILLUSTRATES. UM1FC8M STYLE OF BINDING.

' Moving pictures and photo plays are famous the world
over, and in this line of books the reader is given a full
description of how the films are made — the scenes of little
dramas, indoors and out, trick pictures to satisfy the curious,
soul-stirring pictures of city affairs, life in the Wild West,
among the cowboys and Indians, thrilling rescues along the
seacoast, the daring of picture hunters in the jungle among
savage beasts, and the great risks run in picturing conditions
in a land of earthquakes. The volumes mteem with adven-
tures and will be found interesting from first chapter to last.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS
Or Perils of a Great City Depicted.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE WEST
Or Taking Scenes Among the Cowboys and Indians.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS ON THE COAST
Or Showing the Perils of the Deep.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN THE JUNGLE
Or Stirring Times Among the Wild Animals.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS IN EARTHQUAKE
Or Working Amid Many Perils. LAND

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AND THE FLOOD
Or Perilous Days on the Mississippi.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS AT PANAMA
Or Stirring Adventures Along the Great Canal.

THE MOVING PICTURE BOYS UNDER THE SEA
Or The Treasure of the Lost Ship.

Grosset & Dunlap, Publishers, New Yobr

'■';■'■:■■ J ',. '■:.' ■'•■v:"-r"'-.: \. '